1 libpng-manual.txt - A description on how to use and modify libpng
3 libpng version 1.6.19 - November 12, 2015
4 Updated and distributed by Glenn Randers-Pehrson
5 <glennrp at users.sourceforge.net>
6 Copyright (c) 1998-2015 Glenn Randers-Pehrson
8 This document is released under the libpng license.
9 For conditions of distribution and use, see the disclaimer
14 libpng versions 0.97, January 1998, through 1.6.19 - November 12, 2015
15 Updated and distributed by Glenn Randers-Pehrson
16 Copyright (c) 1998-2015 Glenn Randers-Pehrson
18 libpng 1.0 beta 6 - version 0.96 - May 28, 1997
19 Updated and distributed by Andreas Dilger
20 Copyright (c) 1996, 1997 Andreas Dilger
22 libpng 1.0 beta 2 - version 0.88 - January 26, 1996
23 For conditions of distribution and use, see copyright
24 notice in png.h. Copyright (c) 1995, 1996 Guy Eric
25 Schalnat, Group 42, Inc.
27 Updated/rewritten per request in the libpng FAQ
28 Copyright (c) 1995, 1996 Frank J. T. Wojcik
29 December 18, 1995 & January 20, 1996
38 VI. Modifying/Customizing libpng
40 VIII. Changes to Libpng from version 0.88
41 IX. Changes to Libpng from version 1.0.x to 1.2.x
42 X. Changes to Libpng from version 1.0.x/1.2.x to 1.4.x
43 XI. Changes to Libpng from version 1.4.x to 1.5.x
44 XII. Changes to Libpng from version 1.5.x to 1.6.x
45 XIII. Detecting libpng
46 XIV. Source code repository
48 XVI. Y2K Compliance in libpng
52 This file describes how to use and modify the PNG reference library
53 (known as libpng) for your own use. In addition to this
54 file, example.c is a good starting point for using the library, as
55 it is heavily commented and should include everything most people
56 will need. We assume that libpng is already installed; see the
57 INSTALL file for instructions on how to configure and install libpng.
59 For examples of libpng usage, see the files "example.c", "pngtest.c",
60 and the files in the "contrib" directory, all of which are included in
61 the libpng distribution.
63 Libpng was written as a companion to the PNG specification, as a way
64 of reducing the amount of time and effort it takes to support the PNG
65 file format in application programs.
67 The PNG specification (second edition), November 2003, is available as
68 a W3C Recommendation and as an ISO Standard (ISO/IEC 15948:2004 (E)) at
69 <http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/REC-PNG-20031110/
70 The W3C and ISO documents have identical technical content.
72 The PNG-1.2 specification is available at
73 <http://png-mng.sourceforge.net/pub/png/spec/1.2/>.
74 It is technically equivalent
75 to the PNG specification (second edition) but has some additional material.
77 The PNG-1.0 specification is available as RFC 2083
78 <http://png-mng.sourceforge.net/pub/png/spec/1.0/> and as a
79 W3C Recommendation <http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-png-961001>.
81 Some additional chunks are described in the special-purpose public chunks
82 documents at <http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/spec/register/>
85 about PNG, and the latest version of libpng, can be found at the PNG home
86 page, <http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/>.
88 Most users will not have to modify the library significantly; advanced
89 users may want to modify it more. All attempts were made to make it as
90 complete as possible, while keeping the code easy to understand.
91 Currently, this library only supports C. Support for other languages
94 Libpng has been designed to handle multiple sessions at one time,
95 to be easily modifiable, to be portable to the vast majority of
96 machines (ANSI, K&R, 16-, 32-, and 64-bit) available, and to be easy
97 to use. The ultimate goal of libpng is to promote the acceptance of
98 the PNG file format in whatever way possible. While there is still
99 work to be done (see the TODO file), libpng should cover the
100 majority of the needs of its users.
102 Libpng uses zlib for its compression and decompression of PNG files.
103 Further information about zlib, and the latest version of zlib, can
104 be found at the zlib home page, <http://zlib.net/>.
105 The zlib compression utility is a general purpose utility that is
106 useful for more than PNG files, and can be used without libpng.
107 See the documentation delivered with zlib for more details.
108 You can usually find the source files for the zlib utility wherever you
109 find the libpng source files.
111 Libpng is thread safe, provided the threads are using different
112 instances of the structures. Each thread should have its own
113 png_struct and png_info instances, and thus its own image.
114 Libpng does not protect itself against two threads using the
115 same instance of a structure.
119 There are two main structures that are important to libpng, png_struct
120 and png_info. Both are internal structures that are no longer exposed
121 in the libpng interface (as of libpng 1.5.0).
123 The png_info structure is designed to provide information about the
124 PNG file. At one time, the fields of png_info were intended to be
125 directly accessible to the user. However, this tended to cause problems
126 with applications using dynamically loaded libraries, and as a result
127 a set of interface functions for png_info (the png_get_*() and png_set_*()
128 functions) was developed, and direct access to the png_info fields was
131 The png_struct structure is the object used by the library to decode a
132 single image. As of 1.5.0 this structure is also not exposed.
134 Almost all libpng APIs require a pointer to a png_struct as the first argument.
135 Many (in particular the png_set and png_get APIs) also require a pointer
136 to png_info as the second argument. Some application visible macros
137 defined in png.h designed for basic data access (reading and writing
138 integers in the PNG format) don't take a png_info pointer, but it's almost
139 always safe to assume that a (png_struct*) has to be passed to call an API
142 You can have more than one png_info structure associated with an image,
143 as illustrated in pngtest.c, one for information valid prior to the
144 IDAT chunks and another (called "end_info" below) for things after them.
146 The png.h header file is an invaluable reference for programming with libpng.
147 And while I'm on the topic, make sure you include the libpng header file:
151 and also (as of libpng-1.5.0) the zlib header file, if you need it:
157 The png.h header file defines a number of integral types used by the
158 APIs. Most of these are fairly obvious; for example types corresponding
159 to integers of particular sizes and types for passing color values.
161 One exception is how non-integral numbers are handled. For application
162 convenience most APIs that take such numbers have C (double) arguments;
163 however, internally PNG, and libpng, use 32 bit signed integers and encode
164 the value by multiplying by 100,000. As of libpng 1.5.0 a convenience
165 macro PNG_FP_1 is defined in png.h along with a type (png_fixed_point)
166 which is simply (png_int_32).
168 All APIs that take (double) arguments also have a matching API that
169 takes the corresponding fixed point integer arguments. The fixed point
170 API has the same name as the floating point one with "_fixed" appended.
171 The actual range of values permitted in the APIs is frequently less than
172 the full range of (png_fixed_point) (-21474 to +21474). When APIs require
173 a non-negative argument the type is recorded as png_uint_32 above. Consult
174 the header file and the text below for more information.
176 Special care must be take with sCAL chunk handling because the chunk itself
177 uses non-integral values encoded as strings containing decimal floating point
178 numbers. See the comments in the header file.
182 The main header file function declarations are frequently protected by C
183 preprocessing directives of the form:
185 #ifdef PNG_feature_SUPPORTED
189 #ifdef PNG_feature_SUPPORTED
193 The library can be built without support for these APIs, although a
194 standard build will have all implemented APIs. Application programs
195 should check the feature macros before using an API for maximum
196 portability. From libpng 1.5.0 the feature macros set during the build
197 of libpng are recorded in the header file "pnglibconf.h" and this file
198 is always included by png.h.
200 If you don't need to change the library configuration from the default, skip to
201 the next section ("Reading").
203 Notice that some of the makefiles in the 'scripts' directory and (in 1.5.0) all
204 of the build project files in the 'projects' directory simply copy
205 scripts/pnglibconf.h.prebuilt to pnglibconf.h. This means that these build
206 systems do not permit easy auto-configuration of the library - they only
207 support the default configuration.
209 The easiest way to make minor changes to the libpng configuration when
210 auto-configuration is supported is to add definitions to the command line
211 using (typically) CPPFLAGS. For example:
213 CPPFLAGS=-DPNG_NO_FLOATING_ARITHMETIC
215 will change the internal libpng math implementation for gamma correction and
216 other arithmetic calculations to fixed point, avoiding the need for fast
217 floating point support. The result can be seen in the generated pnglibconf.h -
218 make sure it contains the changed feature macro setting.
220 If you need to make more extensive configuration changes - more than one or two
221 feature macro settings - you can either add -DPNG_USER_CONFIG to the build
222 command line and put a list of feature macro settings in pngusr.h or you can set
223 DFA_XTRA (a makefile variable) to a file containing the same information in the
224 form of 'option' settings.
226 A. Changing pnglibconf.h
228 A variety of methods exist to build libpng. Not all of these support
229 reconfiguration of pnglibconf.h. To reconfigure pnglibconf.h it must either be
230 rebuilt from scripts/pnglibconf.dfa using awk or it must be edited by hand.
232 Hand editing is achieved by copying scripts/pnglibconf.h.prebuilt to
233 pnglibconf.h and changing the lines defining the supported features, paying
234 very close attention to the 'option' information in scripts/pnglibconf.dfa
235 that describes those features and their requirements. This is easy to get
238 B. Configuration using DFA_XTRA
240 Rebuilding from pnglibconf.dfa is easy if a functioning 'awk', or a later
241 variant such as 'nawk' or 'gawk', is available. The configure build will
242 automatically find an appropriate awk and build pnglibconf.h.
243 The scripts/pnglibconf.mak file contains a set of make rules for doing the
244 same thing if configure is not used, and many of the makefiles in the scripts
245 directory use this approach.
247 When rebuilding simply write a new file containing changed options and set
248 DFA_XTRA to the name of this file. This causes the build to append the new file
249 to the end of scripts/pnglibconf.dfa. The pngusr.dfa file should contain lines
250 of the following forms:
254 This turns all optional features off. Include it at the start of pngusr.dfa to
255 make it easier to build a minimal configuration. You will need to turn at least
256 some features on afterward to enable either reading or writing code, or both.
261 Enable or disable a single feature. This will automatically enable other
262 features required by a feature that is turned on or disable other features that
263 require a feature which is turned off. Conflicting settings will cause an error
264 message to be emitted by awk.
266 setting feature default value
268 Changes the default value of setting 'feature' to 'value'. There are a small
269 number of settings listed at the top of pnglibconf.h, they are documented in the
270 source code. Most of these values have performance implications for the library
271 but most of them have no visible effect on the API. Some can also be overridden
274 This method of building a customized pnglibconf.h is illustrated in
275 contrib/pngminim/*. See the "$(PNGCONF):" target in the makefile and
276 pngusr.dfa in these directories.
278 C. Configuration using PNG_USER_CONFIG
280 If -DPNG_USER_CONFIG is added to the CPPFLAGS when pnglibconf.h is built,
281 the file pngusr.h will automatically be included before the options in
282 scripts/pnglibconf.dfa are processed. Your pngusr.h file should contain only
283 macro definitions turning features on or off or setting settings.
285 Apart from the global setting "everything = off" all the options listed above
286 can be set using macros in pngusr.h:
288 #define PNG_feature_SUPPORTED
294 #define PNG_NO_feature
300 #define PNG_feature value
304 setting feature default value
306 Notice that in both cases, pngusr.dfa and pngusr.h, the contents of the
307 pngusr file you supply override the contents of scripts/pnglibconf.dfa
309 If confusing or incomprehensible behavior results it is possible to
310 examine the intermediate file pnglibconf.dfn to find the full set of
311 dependency information for each setting and option. Simply locate the
312 feature in the file and read the C comments that precede it.
314 This method is also illustrated in the contrib/pngminim/* makefiles and
319 We'll now walk you through the possible functions to call when reading
320 in a PNG file sequentially, briefly explaining the syntax and purpose
321 of each one. See example.c and png.h for more detail. While
322 progressive reading is covered in the next section, you will still
323 need some of the functions discussed in this section to read a PNG
328 You will want to do the I/O initialization(*) before you get into libpng,
329 so if it doesn't work, you don't have much to undo. Of course, you
330 will also want to insure that you are, in fact, dealing with a PNG
331 file. Libpng provides a simple check to see if a file is a PNG file.
332 To use it, pass in the first 1 to 8 bytes of the file to the function
333 png_sig_cmp(), and it will return 0 (false) if the bytes match the
334 corresponding bytes of the PNG signature, or nonzero (true) otherwise.
335 Of course, the more bytes you pass in, the greater the accuracy of the
338 If you are intending to keep the file pointer open for use in libpng,
339 you must ensure you don't read more than 8 bytes from the beginning
340 of the file, and you also have to make a call to png_set_sig_bytes()
341 with the number of bytes you read from the beginning. Libpng will
342 then only check the bytes (if any) that your program didn't read.
344 (*): If you are not using the standard I/O functions, you will need
345 to replace them with custom functions. See the discussion under
348 FILE *fp = fopen(file_name, "rb");
354 if (fread(header, 1, number, fp) != number)
359 is_png = !png_sig_cmp(header, 0, number);
365 Next, png_struct and png_info need to be allocated and initialized. In
366 order to ensure that the size of these structures is correct even with a
367 dynamically linked libpng, there are functions to initialize and
368 allocate the structures. We also pass the library version, optional
369 pointers to error handling functions, and a pointer to a data struct for
370 use by the error functions, if necessary (the pointer and functions can
371 be NULL if the default error handlers are to be used). See the section
372 on Changes to Libpng below regarding the old initialization functions.
373 The structure allocation functions quietly return NULL if they fail to
374 create the structure, so your application should check for that.
376 png_structp png_ptr = png_create_read_struct
377 (PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
378 user_error_fn, user_warning_fn);
383 png_infop info_ptr = png_create_info_struct(png_ptr);
387 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr,
388 (png_infopp)NULL, (png_infopp)NULL);
392 If you want to use your own memory allocation routines,
393 use a libpng that was built with PNG_USER_MEM_SUPPORTED defined, and use
394 png_create_read_struct_2() instead of png_create_read_struct():
396 png_structp png_ptr = png_create_read_struct_2
397 (PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
398 user_error_fn, user_warning_fn, (png_voidp)
399 user_mem_ptr, user_malloc_fn, user_free_fn);
401 The error handling routines passed to png_create_read_struct()
402 and the memory alloc/free routines passed to png_create_struct_2()
403 are only necessary if you are not using the libpng supplied error
404 handling and memory alloc/free functions.
406 When libpng encounters an error, it expects to longjmp back
407 to your routine. Therefore, you will need to call setjmp and pass
408 your png_jmpbuf(png_ptr). If you read the file from different
409 routines, you will need to update the longjmp buffer every time you enter
410 a new routine that will call a png_*() function.
412 See your documentation of setjmp/longjmp for your compiler for more
413 information on setjmp/longjmp. See the discussion on libpng error
414 handling in the Customizing Libpng section below for more information
415 on the libpng error handling. If an error occurs, and libpng longjmp's
416 back to your setjmp, you will want to call png_destroy_read_struct() to
419 if (setjmp(png_jmpbuf(png_ptr)))
421 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
427 Pass (png_infopp)NULL instead of &end_info if you didn't create
428 an end_info structure.
430 If you would rather avoid the complexity of setjmp/longjmp issues,
431 you can compile libpng with PNG_NO_SETJMP, in which case
432 errors will result in a call to PNG_ABORT() which defaults to abort().
434 You can #define PNG_ABORT() to a function that does something
435 more useful than abort(), as long as your function does not
438 Now you need to set up the input code. The default for libpng is to
439 use the C function fread(). If you use this, you will need to pass a
440 valid FILE * in the function png_init_io(). Be sure that the file is
441 opened in binary mode. If you wish to handle reading data in another
442 way, you need not call the png_init_io() function, but you must then
443 implement the libpng I/O methods discussed in the Customizing Libpng
446 png_init_io(png_ptr, fp);
448 If you had previously opened the file and read any of the signature from
449 the beginning in order to see if this was a PNG file, you need to let
450 libpng know that there are some bytes missing from the start of the file.
452 png_set_sig_bytes(png_ptr, number);
454 You can change the zlib compression buffer size to be used while
455 reading compressed data with
457 png_set_compression_buffer_size(png_ptr, buffer_size);
459 where the default size is 8192 bytes. Note that the buffer size
460 is changed immediately and the buffer is reallocated immediately,
461 instead of setting a flag to be acted upon later.
463 If you want CRC errors to be handled in a different manner than
466 png_set_crc_action(png_ptr, crit_action, ancil_action);
468 The values for png_set_crc_action() say how libpng is to handle CRC errors in
469 ancillary and critical chunks, and whether to use the data contained
470 therein. Note that it is impossible to "discard" data in a critical
473 Choices for (int) crit_action are
474 PNG_CRC_DEFAULT 0 error/quit
475 PNG_CRC_ERROR_QUIT 1 error/quit
476 PNG_CRC_WARN_USE 3 warn/use data
477 PNG_CRC_QUIET_USE 4 quiet/use data
478 PNG_CRC_NO_CHANGE 5 use the current value
480 Choices for (int) ancil_action are
481 PNG_CRC_DEFAULT 0 error/quit
482 PNG_CRC_ERROR_QUIT 1 error/quit
483 PNG_CRC_WARN_DISCARD 2 warn/discard data
484 PNG_CRC_WARN_USE 3 warn/use data
485 PNG_CRC_QUIET_USE 4 quiet/use data
486 PNG_CRC_NO_CHANGE 5 use the current value
488 Setting up callback code
490 You can set up a callback function to handle any unknown chunks in the
491 input stream. You must supply the function
493 read_chunk_callback(png_structp png_ptr,
494 png_unknown_chunkp chunk);
496 /* The unknown chunk structure contains your
497 chunk data, along with similar data for any other
504 /* Note that libpng has already taken care of
507 /* put your code here. Search for your chunk in the
508 unknown chunk structure, process it, and return one
511 return (-n); /* chunk had an error */
512 return (0); /* did not recognize */
513 return (n); /* success */
516 (You can give your function another name that you like instead of
517 "read_chunk_callback")
519 To inform libpng about your function, use
521 png_set_read_user_chunk_fn(png_ptr, user_chunk_ptr,
522 read_chunk_callback);
524 This names not only the callback function, but also a user pointer that
525 you can retrieve with
527 png_get_user_chunk_ptr(png_ptr);
529 If you call the png_set_read_user_chunk_fn() function, then all unknown
530 chunks which the callback does not handle will be saved when read. You can
531 cause them to be discarded by returning '1' ("handled") instead of '0'. This
532 behavior will change in libpng 1.7 and the default handling set by the
533 png_set_keep_unknown_chunks() function, described below, will be used when the
534 callback returns 0. If you want the existing behavior you should set the global
535 default to PNG_HANDLE_CHUNK_IF_SAFE now; this is compatible with all current
536 versions of libpng and with 1.7. Libpng 1.6 issues a warning if you keep the
537 default, or PNG_HANDLE_CHUNK_NEVER, and the callback returns 0.
539 At this point, you can set up a callback function that will be
540 called after each row has been read, which you can use to control
541 a progress meter or the like. It's demonstrated in pngtest.c.
542 You must supply a function
544 void read_row_callback(png_structp png_ptr,
545 png_uint_32 row, int pass);
547 /* put your code here */
550 (You can give it another name that you like instead of "read_row_callback")
552 To inform libpng about your function, use
554 png_set_read_status_fn(png_ptr, read_row_callback);
556 When this function is called the row has already been completely processed and
557 the 'row' and 'pass' refer to the next row to be handled. For the
558 non-interlaced case the row that was just handled is simply one less than the
559 passed in row number, and pass will always be 0. For the interlaced case the
560 same applies unless the row value is 0, in which case the row just handled was
561 the last one from one of the preceding passes. Because interlacing may skip a
562 pass you cannot be sure that the preceding pass is just 'pass-1', if you really
563 need to know what the last pass is record (row,pass) from the callback and use
564 the last recorded value each time.
566 As with the user transform you can find the output row using the
567 PNG_ROW_FROM_PASS_ROW macro.
569 Unknown-chunk handling
571 Now you get to set the way the library processes unknown chunks in the
572 input PNG stream. Both known and unknown chunks will be read. Normal
573 behavior is that known chunks will be parsed into information in
574 various info_ptr members while unknown chunks will be discarded. This
575 behavior can be wasteful if your application will never use some known
576 chunk types. To change this, you can call:
578 png_set_keep_unknown_chunks(png_ptr, keep,
579 chunk_list, num_chunks);
581 keep - 0: default unknown chunk handling
582 1: ignore; do not keep
583 2: keep only if safe-to-copy
584 3: keep even if unsafe-to-copy
586 You can use these definitions:
587 PNG_HANDLE_CHUNK_AS_DEFAULT 0
588 PNG_HANDLE_CHUNK_NEVER 1
589 PNG_HANDLE_CHUNK_IF_SAFE 2
590 PNG_HANDLE_CHUNK_ALWAYS 3
592 chunk_list - list of chunks affected (a byte string,
593 five bytes per chunk, NULL or '\0' if
594 num_chunks is positive; ignored if
597 num_chunks - number of chunks affected; if 0, all
598 unknown chunks are affected. If positive,
599 only the chunks in the list are affected,
600 and if negative all unknown chunks and
601 all known chunks except for the IHDR,
602 PLTE, tRNS, IDAT, and IEND chunks are
605 Unknown chunks declared in this way will be saved as raw data onto a
606 list of png_unknown_chunk structures. If a chunk that is normally
607 known to libpng is named in the list, it will be handled as unknown,
608 according to the "keep" directive. If a chunk is named in successive
609 instances of png_set_keep_unknown_chunks(), the final instance will
610 take precedence. The IHDR and IEND chunks should not be named in
611 chunk_list; if they are, libpng will process them normally anyway.
612 If you know that your application will never make use of some particular
613 chunks, use PNG_HANDLE_CHUNK_NEVER (or 1) as demonstrated below.
615 Here is an example of the usage of png_set_keep_unknown_chunks(),
616 where the private "vpAg" chunk will later be processed by a user chunk
619 png_byte vpAg[5]={118, 112, 65, 103, (png_byte) '\0'};
621 #if defined(PNG_UNKNOWN_CHUNKS_SUPPORTED)
622 png_byte unused_chunks[]=
624 104, 73, 83, 84, (png_byte) '\0', /* hIST */
625 105, 84, 88, 116, (png_byte) '\0', /* iTXt */
626 112, 67, 65, 76, (png_byte) '\0', /* pCAL */
627 115, 67, 65, 76, (png_byte) '\0', /* sCAL */
628 115, 80, 76, 84, (png_byte) '\0', /* sPLT */
629 116, 73, 77, 69, (png_byte) '\0', /* tIME */
635 #if defined(PNG_UNKNOWN_CHUNKS_SUPPORTED)
636 /* ignore all unknown chunks
637 * (use global setting "2" for libpng16 and earlier):
639 png_set_keep_unknown_chunks(read_ptr, 2, NULL, 0);
641 /* except for vpAg: */
642 png_set_keep_unknown_chunks(read_ptr, 2, vpAg, 1);
644 /* also ignore unused known chunks: */
645 png_set_keep_unknown_chunks(read_ptr, 1, unused_chunks,
646 (int)(sizeof unused_chunks)/5);
651 The PNG specification allows the width and height of an image to be as
652 large as 2^31-1 (0x7fffffff), or about 2.147 billion rows and columns.
653 For safety, libpng imposes a default limit of 1 million rows and columns.
654 Larger images will be rejected immediately with a png_error() call. If
655 you wish to change these limits, you can use
657 png_set_user_limits(png_ptr, width_max, height_max);
659 to set your own limits (libpng may reject some very wide images
660 anyway because of potential buffer overflow conditions).
662 You should put this statement after you create the PNG structure and
663 before calling png_read_info(), png_read_png(), or png_process_data().
665 When writing a PNG datastream, put this statement before calling
666 png_write_info() or png_write_png().
668 If you need to retrieve the limits that are being applied, use
670 width_max = png_get_user_width_max(png_ptr);
671 height_max = png_get_user_height_max(png_ptr);
673 The PNG specification sets no limit on the number of ancillary chunks
674 allowed in a PNG datastream. By default, libpng imposes a limit of
675 a total of 1000 sPLT, tEXt, iTXt, zTXt, and unknown chunks to be stored.
676 If you have set up both info_ptr and end_info_ptr, the limit applies
677 separately to each. You can change the limit on the total number of such
678 chunks that will be stored, with
680 png_set_chunk_cache_max(png_ptr, user_chunk_cache_max);
682 where 0x7fffffffL means unlimited. You can retrieve this limit with
684 chunk_cache_max = png_get_chunk_cache_max(png_ptr);
686 Libpng imposes a limit of 8 Megabytes (8,000,000 bytes) on the amount of
687 memory that a compressed chunk other than IDAT can occupy, when decompressed.
688 You can change this limit with
690 png_set_chunk_malloc_max(png_ptr, user_chunk_malloc_max);
692 and you can retrieve the limit with
694 chunk_malloc_max = png_get_chunk_malloc_max(png_ptr);
696 Any chunks that would cause either of these limits to be exceeded will
699 Information about your system
701 If you intend to display the PNG or to incorporate it in other image data you
702 need to tell libpng information about your display or drawing surface so that
703 libpng can convert the values in the image to match the display.
705 From libpng-1.5.4 this information can be set before reading the PNG file
706 header. In earlier versions png_set_gamma() existed but behaved incorrectly if
707 called before the PNG file header had been read and png_set_alpha_mode() did not
710 If you need to support versions prior to libpng-1.5.4 test the version number
711 as illustrated below using "PNG_LIBPNG_VER >= 10504" and follow the procedures
712 described in the appropriate manual page.
714 You give libpng the encoding expected by your system expressed as a 'gamma'
715 value. You can also specify a default encoding for the PNG file in
716 case the required information is missing from the file. By default libpng
717 assumes that the PNG data matches your system, to keep this default call:
719 png_set_gamma(png_ptr, screen_gamma, output_gamma);
721 or you can use the fixed point equivalent:
723 png_set_gamma_fixed(png_ptr, PNG_FP_1*screen_gamma,
724 PNG_FP_1*output_gamma);
726 If you don't know the gamma for your system it is probably 2.2 - a good
727 approximation to the IEC standard for display systems (sRGB). If images are
728 too contrasty or washed out you got the value wrong - check your system
731 Many systems permit the system gamma to be changed via a lookup table in the
732 display driver, a few systems, including older Macs, change the response by
733 default. As of 1.5.4 three special values are available to handle common
736 PNG_DEFAULT_sRGB: Indicates that the system conforms to the
737 IEC 61966-2-1 standard. This matches almost
739 PNG_GAMMA_MAC_18: Indicates that the system is an older
740 (pre Mac OS 10.6) Apple Macintosh system with
741 the default settings.
742 PNG_GAMMA_LINEAR: Just the fixed point value for 1.0 - indicates
743 that the system expects data with no gamma
746 You would use the linear (unencoded) value if you need to process the pixel
747 values further because this avoids the need to decode and re-encode each
748 component value whenever arithmetic is performed. A lot of graphics software
749 uses linear values for this reason, often with higher precision component values
750 to preserve overall accuracy.
753 The output_gamma value expresses how to decode the output values, not how
754 they are encoded. The values used correspond to the normal numbers used to
755 describe the overall gamma of a computer display system; for example 2.2 for
756 an sRGB conformant system. The values are scaled by 100000 in the _fixed
757 version of the API (so 220000 for sRGB.)
759 The inverse of the value is always used to provide a default for the PNG file
760 encoding if it has no gAMA chunk and if png_set_gamma() has not been called
761 to override the PNG gamma information.
763 When the ALPHA_OPTIMIZED mode is selected the output gamma is used to encode
764 opaque pixels however pixels with lower alpha values are not encoded,
765 regardless of the output gamma setting.
767 When the standard Porter Duff handling is requested with mode 1 the output
768 encoding is set to be linear and the output_gamma value is only relevant
769 as a default for input data that has no gamma information. The linear output
770 encoding will be overridden if png_set_gamma() is called - the results may be
773 The following numbers are derived from the sRGB standard and the research
774 behind it. sRGB is defined to be approximated by a PNG gAMA chunk value of
775 0.45455 (1/2.2) for PNG. The value implicitly includes any viewing
776 correction required to take account of any differences in the color
777 environment of the original scene and the intended display environment; the
778 value expresses how to *decode* the image for display, not how the original
781 sRGB provides a peg for the PNG standard by defining a viewing environment.
782 sRGB itself, and earlier TV standards, actually use a more complex transform
783 (a linear portion then a gamma 2.4 power law) than PNG can express. (PNG is
784 limited to simple power laws.) By saying that an image for direct display on
785 an sRGB conformant system should be stored with a gAMA chunk value of 45455
786 (11.3.3.2 and 11.3.3.5 of the ISO PNG specification) the PNG specification
787 makes it possible to derive values for other display systems and
790 The Mac value is deduced from the sRGB based on an assumption that the actual
791 extra viewing correction used in early Mac display systems was implemented as
792 a power 1.45 lookup table.
794 Any system where a programmable lookup table is used or where the behavior of
795 the final display device characteristics can be changed requires system
796 specific code to obtain the current characteristic. However this can be
797 difficult and most PNG gamma correction only requires an approximate value.
799 By default, if png_set_alpha_mode() is not called, libpng assumes that all
800 values are unencoded, linear, values and that the output device also has a
801 linear characteristic. This is only very rarely correct - it is invariably
802 better to call png_set_alpha_mode() with PNG_DEFAULT_sRGB than rely on the
803 default if you don't know what the right answer is!
805 The special value PNG_GAMMA_MAC_18 indicates an older Mac system (pre Mac OS
806 10.6) which used a correction table to implement a somewhat lower gamma on an
807 otherwise sRGB system.
809 Both these values are reserved (not simple gamma values) in order to allow
810 more precise correction internally in the future.
812 NOTE: the values can be passed to either the fixed or floating
813 point APIs, but the floating point API will also accept floating point
816 The second thing you may need to tell libpng about is how your system handles
817 alpha channel information. Some, but not all, PNG files contain an alpha
818 channel. To display these files correctly you need to compose the data onto a
819 suitable background, as described in the PNG specification.
821 Libpng only supports composing onto a single color (using png_set_background;
822 see below). Otherwise you must do the composition yourself and, in this case,
823 you may need to call png_set_alpha_mode:
825 #if PNG_LIBPNG_VER >= 10504
826 png_set_alpha_mode(png_ptr, mode, screen_gamma);
828 png_set_gamma(png_ptr, screen_gamma, 1.0/screen_gamma);
831 The screen_gamma value is the same as the argument to png_set_gamma; however,
832 how it affects the output depends on the mode. png_set_alpha_mode() sets the
833 file gamma default to 1/screen_gamma, so normally you don't need to call
834 png_set_gamma. If you need different defaults call png_set_gamma() before
835 png_set_alpha_mode() - if you call it after it will override the settings made
836 by png_set_alpha_mode().
838 The mode is as follows:
840 PNG_ALPHA_PNG: The data is encoded according to the PNG
841 specification. Red, green and blue, or gray, components are
842 gamma encoded color values and are not premultiplied by the
843 alpha value. The alpha value is a linear measure of the
844 contribution of the pixel to the corresponding final output pixel.
846 You should normally use this format if you intend to perform
847 color correction on the color values; most, maybe all, color
848 correction software has no handling for the alpha channel and,
849 anyway, the math to handle pre-multiplied component values is
850 unnecessarily complex.
852 Before you do any arithmetic on the component values you need
853 to remove the gamma encoding and multiply out the alpha
854 channel. See the PNG specification for more detail. It is
855 important to note that when an image with an alpha channel is
856 scaled, linear encoded, pre-multiplied component values must
859 The remaining modes assume you don't need to do any further color correction or
860 that if you do, your color correction software knows all about alpha (it
861 probably doesn't!). They 'associate' the alpha with the color information by
862 storing color channel values that have been scaled by the alpha. The
863 advantage is that the color channels can be resampled (the image can be
864 scaled) in this form. The disadvantage is that normal practice is to store
865 linear, not (gamma) encoded, values and this requires 16-bit channels for
866 still images rather than the 8-bit channels that are just about sufficient if
867 gamma encoding is used. In addition all non-transparent pixel values,
868 including completely opaque ones, must be gamma encoded to produce the final
869 image. These are the 'STANDARD', 'ASSOCIATED' or 'PREMULTIPLIED' modes
870 described below (the latter being the two common names for associated alpha
871 color channels). Note that PNG files always contain non-associated color
872 channels; png_set_alpha_mode() with one of the modes causes the decoder to
873 convert the pixels to an associated form before returning them to your
876 Since it is not necessary to perform arithmetic on opaque color values so
877 long as they are not to be resampled and are in the final color space it is
878 possible to optimize the handling of alpha by storing the opaque pixels in
879 the PNG format (adjusted for the output color space) while storing partially
880 opaque pixels in the standard, linear, format. The accuracy required for
881 standard alpha composition is relatively low, because the pixels are
882 isolated, therefore typically the accuracy loss in storing 8-bit linear
883 values is acceptable. (This is not true if the alpha channel is used to
884 simulate transparency over large areas - use 16 bits or the PNG mode in
885 this case!) This is the 'OPTIMIZED' mode. For this mode a pixel is
886 treated as opaque only if the alpha value is equal to the maximum value.
888 PNG_ALPHA_STANDARD: The data libpng produces is encoded in the
889 standard way assumed by most correctly written graphics software.
890 The gamma encoding will be removed by libpng and the
891 linear component values will be pre-multiplied by the
894 With this format the final image must be re-encoded to
895 match the display gamma before the image is displayed.
896 If your system doesn't do that, yet still seems to
897 perform arithmetic on the pixels without decoding them,
898 it is broken - check out the modes below.
900 With PNG_ALPHA_STANDARD libpng always produces linear
901 component values, whatever screen_gamma you supply. The
902 screen_gamma value is, however, used as a default for
903 the file gamma if the PNG file has no gamma information.
905 If you call png_set_gamma() after png_set_alpha_mode() you
906 will override the linear encoding. Instead the
907 pre-multiplied pixel values will be gamma encoded but
908 the alpha channel will still be linear. This may
909 actually match the requirements of some broken software,
912 While linear 8-bit data is often used it has
913 insufficient precision for any image with a reasonable
914 dynamic range. To avoid problems, and if your software
915 supports it, use png_set_expand_16() to force all
916 components to 16 bits.
918 PNG_ALPHA_OPTIMIZED: This mode is the same as PNG_ALPHA_STANDARD
919 except that completely opaque pixels are gamma encoded according to
920 the screen_gamma value. Pixels with alpha less than 1.0
921 will still have linear components.
923 Use this format if you have control over your
924 compositing software and so don't do other arithmetic
925 (such as scaling) on the data you get from libpng. Your
926 compositing software can simply copy opaque pixels to
927 the output but still has linear values for the
930 In normal compositing, where the alpha channel encodes
931 partial pixel coverage (as opposed to broad area
932 translucency), the inaccuracies of the 8-bit
933 representation of non-opaque pixels are irrelevant.
935 You can also try this format if your software is broken;
936 it might look better.
938 PNG_ALPHA_BROKEN: This is PNG_ALPHA_STANDARD; however, all component
939 values, including the alpha channel are gamma encoded. This is
940 broken because, in practice, no implementation that uses this choice
941 correctly undoes the encoding before handling alpha composition. Use this
942 choice only if other serious errors in the software or hardware you use
943 mandate it. In most cases of broken software or hardware the bug in the
944 final display manifests as a subtle halo around composited parts of the
945 image. You may not even perceive this as a halo; the composited part of
946 the image may simply appear separate from the background, as though it had
947 been cut out of paper and pasted on afterward.
949 If you don't have to deal with bugs in software or hardware, or if you can fix
950 them, there are three recommended ways of using png_set_alpha_mode():
952 png_set_alpha_mode(png_ptr, PNG_ALPHA_PNG,
955 You can do color correction on the result (libpng does not currently
956 support color correction internally). When you handle the alpha channel
957 you need to undo the gamma encoding and multiply out the alpha.
959 png_set_alpha_mode(png_ptr, PNG_ALPHA_STANDARD,
961 png_set_expand_16(png_ptr);
963 If you are using the high level interface, don't call png_set_expand_16();
964 instead pass PNG_TRANSFORM_EXPAND_16 to the interface.
966 With this mode you can't do color correction, but you can do arithmetic,
967 including composition and scaling, on the data without further processing.
969 png_set_alpha_mode(png_ptr, PNG_ALPHA_OPTIMIZED,
972 You can avoid the expansion to 16-bit components with this mode, but you
973 lose the ability to scale the image or perform other linear arithmetic.
974 All you can do is compose the result onto a matching output. Since this
975 mode is libpng-specific you also need to write your own composition
978 The following are examples of calls to png_set_alpha_mode to achieve the
979 required overall gamma correction and, where necessary, alpha
982 png_set_alpha_mode(pp, PNG_ALPHA_PNG, PNG_DEFAULT_sRGB);
984 This is the default libpng handling of the alpha channel - it is not
985 pre-multiplied into the color components. In addition the call states
986 that the output is for a sRGB system and causes all PNG files without gAMA
987 chunks to be assumed to be encoded using sRGB.
989 png_set_alpha_mode(pp, PNG_ALPHA_PNG, PNG_GAMMA_MAC);
991 In this case the output is assumed to be something like an sRGB conformant
992 display preceeded by a power-law lookup table of power 1.45. This is how
993 early Mac systems behaved.
995 png_set_alpha_mode(pp, PNG_ALPHA_STANDARD, PNG_GAMMA_LINEAR);
997 This is the classic Jim Blinn approach and will work in academic
998 environments where everything is done by the book. It has the shortcoming
999 of assuming that input PNG data with no gamma information is linear - this
1000 is unlikely to be correct unless the PNG files where generated locally.
1001 Most of the time the output precision will be so low as to show
1002 significant banding in dark areas of the image.
1004 png_set_expand_16(pp);
1005 png_set_alpha_mode(pp, PNG_ALPHA_STANDARD, PNG_DEFAULT_sRGB);
1007 This is a somewhat more realistic Jim Blinn inspired approach. PNG files
1008 are assumed to have the sRGB encoding if not marked with a gamma value and
1009 the output is always 16 bits per component. This permits accurate scaling
1010 and processing of the data. If you know that your input PNG files were
1011 generated locally you might need to replace PNG_DEFAULT_sRGB with the
1012 correct value for your system.
1014 png_set_alpha_mode(pp, PNG_ALPHA_OPTIMIZED, PNG_DEFAULT_sRGB);
1016 If you just need to composite the PNG image onto an existing background
1017 and if you control the code that does this you can use the optimization
1018 setting. In this case you just copy completely opaque pixels to the
1019 output. For pixels that are not completely transparent (you just skip
1020 those) you do the composition math using png_composite or png_composite_16
1021 below then encode the resultant 8-bit or 16-bit values to match the output
1026 If neither the PNG nor the standard linear encoding work for you because
1027 of the software or hardware you use then you have a big problem. The PNG
1028 case will probably result in halos around the image. The linear encoding
1029 will probably result in a washed out, too bright, image (it's actually too
1030 contrasty.) Try the ALPHA_OPTIMIZED mode above - this will probably
1031 substantially reduce the halos. Alternatively try:
1033 png_set_alpha_mode(pp, PNG_ALPHA_BROKEN, PNG_DEFAULT_sRGB);
1035 This option will also reduce the halos, but there will be slight dark
1036 halos round the opaque parts of the image where the background is light.
1037 In the OPTIMIZED mode the halos will be light halos where the background
1038 is dark. Take your pick - the halos are unavoidable unless you can get
1039 your hardware/software fixed! (The OPTIMIZED approach is slightly
1042 When the default gamma of PNG files doesn't match the output gamma.
1043 If you have PNG files with no gamma information png_set_alpha_mode allows
1044 you to provide a default gamma, but it also sets the ouput gamma to the
1045 matching value. If you know your PNG files have a gamma that doesn't
1046 match the output you can take advantage of the fact that
1047 png_set_alpha_mode always sets the output gamma but only sets the PNG
1048 default if it is not already set:
1050 png_set_alpha_mode(pp, PNG_ALPHA_PNG, PNG_DEFAULT_sRGB);
1051 png_set_alpha_mode(pp, PNG_ALPHA_PNG, PNG_GAMMA_MAC);
1053 The first call sets both the default and the output gamma values, the
1054 second call overrides the output gamma without changing the default. This
1055 is easier than achieving the same effect with png_set_gamma. You must use
1056 PNG_ALPHA_PNG for the first call - internal checking in png_set_alpha will
1057 fire if more than one call to png_set_alpha_mode and png_set_background is
1058 made in the same read operation, however multiple calls with PNG_ALPHA_PNG
1061 If you don't need, or can't handle, the alpha channel you can call
1062 png_set_background() to remove it by compositing against a fixed color. Don't
1063 call png_set_strip_alpha() to do this - it will leave spurious pixel values in
1064 transparent parts of this image.
1066 png_set_background(png_ptr, &background_color,
1067 PNG_BACKGROUND_GAMMA_SCREEN, 0, 1);
1069 The background_color is an RGB or grayscale value according to the data format
1070 libpng will produce for you. Because you don't yet know the format of the PNG
1071 file, if you call png_set_background at this point you must arrange for the
1072 format produced by libpng to always have 8-bit or 16-bit components and then
1073 store the color as an 8-bit or 16-bit color as appropriate. The color contains
1074 separate gray and RGB component values, so you can let libpng produce gray or
1075 RGB output according to the input format, but low bit depth grayscale images
1076 must always be converted to at least 8-bit format. (Even though low bit depth
1077 grayscale images can't have an alpha channel they can have a transparent
1080 You set the transforms you need later, either as flags to the high level
1081 interface or libpng API calls for the low level interface. For reference the
1082 settings and API calls required are:
1085 PNG_TRANSFORM_SCALE_16 | PNG_EXPAND
1086 png_set_expand(png_ptr); png_set_scale_16(png_ptr);
1088 If you must get exactly the same inaccurate results
1089 produced by default in versions prior to libpng-1.5.4,
1090 use PNG_TRANSFORM_STRIP_16 and png_set_strip_16(png_ptr)
1094 PNG_TRANSFORM_EXPAND_16
1095 png_set_expand_16(png_ptr);
1097 In either case palette image data will be expanded to RGB. If you just want
1098 color data you can add PNG_TRANSFORM_GRAY_TO_RGB or png_set_gray_to_rgb(png_ptr)
1101 Calling png_set_background before the PNG file header is read will not work
1102 prior to libpng-1.5.4. Because the failure may result in unexpected warnings or
1103 errors it is therefore much safer to call png_set_background after the head has
1104 been read. Unfortunately this means that prior to libpng-1.5.4 it cannot be
1105 used with the high level interface.
1107 The high-level read interface
1109 At this point there are two ways to proceed; through the high-level
1110 read interface, or through a sequence of low-level read operations.
1111 You can use the high-level interface if (a) you are willing to read
1112 the entire image into memory, and (b) the input transformations
1113 you want to do are limited to the following set:
1115 PNG_TRANSFORM_IDENTITY No transformation
1116 PNG_TRANSFORM_SCALE_16 Strip 16-bit samples to
1118 PNG_TRANSFORM_STRIP_16 Chop 16-bit samples to
1119 8-bit less accurately
1120 PNG_TRANSFORM_STRIP_ALPHA Discard the alpha channel
1121 PNG_TRANSFORM_PACKING Expand 1, 2 and 4-bit
1123 PNG_TRANSFORM_PACKSWAP Change order of packed
1125 PNG_TRANSFORM_EXPAND Perform set_expand()
1126 PNG_TRANSFORM_INVERT_MONO Invert monochrome images
1127 PNG_TRANSFORM_SHIFT Normalize pixels to the
1129 PNG_TRANSFORM_BGR Flip RGB to BGR, RGBA
1131 PNG_TRANSFORM_SWAP_ALPHA Flip RGBA to ARGB or GA
1133 PNG_TRANSFORM_INVERT_ALPHA Change alpha from opacity
1135 PNG_TRANSFORM_SWAP_ENDIAN Byte-swap 16-bit samples
1136 PNG_TRANSFORM_GRAY_TO_RGB Expand grayscale samples
1137 to RGB (or GA to RGBA)
1138 PNG_TRANSFORM_EXPAND_16 Expand samples to 16 bits
1140 (This excludes setting a background color, doing gamma transformation,
1141 quantizing, and setting filler.) If this is the case, simply do this:
1143 png_read_png(png_ptr, info_ptr, png_transforms, NULL)
1145 where png_transforms is an integer containing the bitwise OR of some
1146 set of transformation flags. This call is equivalent to png_read_info(),
1147 followed the set of transformations indicated by the transform mask,
1148 then png_read_image(), and finally png_read_end().
1150 (The final parameter of this call is not yet used. Someday it might point
1151 to transformation parameters required by some future input transform.)
1153 You must use png_transforms and not call any png_set_transform() functions
1154 when you use png_read_png().
1156 After you have called png_read_png(), you can retrieve the image data
1159 row_pointers = png_get_rows(png_ptr, info_ptr);
1161 where row_pointers is an array of pointers to the pixel data for each row:
1163 png_bytep row_pointers[height];
1165 If you know your image size and pixel size ahead of time, you can allocate
1166 row_pointers prior to calling png_read_png() with
1168 if (height > PNG_UINT_32_MAX/(sizeof (png_byte)))
1170 "Image is too tall to process in memory");
1172 if (width > PNG_UINT_32_MAX/pixel_size)
1174 "Image is too wide to process in memory");
1176 row_pointers = png_malloc(png_ptr,
1177 height*(sizeof (png_bytep)));
1179 for (int i=0; i<height, i++)
1180 row_pointers[i]=NULL; /* security precaution */
1182 for (int i=0; i<height, i++)
1183 row_pointers[i]=png_malloc(png_ptr,
1186 png_set_rows(png_ptr, info_ptr, &row_pointers);
1188 Alternatively you could allocate your image in one big block and define
1189 row_pointers[i] to point into the proper places in your block.
1191 If you use png_set_rows(), the application is responsible for freeing
1192 row_pointers (and row_pointers[i], if they were separately allocated).
1194 If you don't allocate row_pointers ahead of time, png_read_png() will
1195 do it, and it'll be free'ed by libpng when you call png_destroy_*().
1197 The low-level read interface
1199 If you are going the low-level route, you are now ready to read all
1200 the file information up to the actual image data. You do this with a
1201 call to png_read_info().
1203 png_read_info(png_ptr, info_ptr);
1205 This will process all chunks up to but not including the image data.
1207 This also copies some of the data from the PNG file into the decode structure
1208 for use in later transformations. Important information copied in is:
1210 1) The PNG file gamma from the gAMA chunk. This overwrites the default value
1211 provided by an earlier call to png_set_gamma or png_set_alpha_mode.
1213 2) Prior to libpng-1.5.4 the background color from a bKGd chunk. This
1214 damages the information provided by an earlier call to png_set_background
1215 resulting in unexpected behavior. Libpng-1.5.4 no longer does this.
1217 3) The number of significant bits in each component value. Libpng uses this to
1218 optimize gamma handling by reducing the internal lookup table sizes.
1220 4) The transparent color information from a tRNS chunk. This can be modified by
1221 a later call to png_set_tRNS.
1223 Querying the info structure
1225 Functions are used to get the information from the info_ptr once it
1226 has been read. Note that these fields may not be completely filled
1227 in until png_read_end() has read the chunk data following the image.
1229 png_get_IHDR(png_ptr, info_ptr, &width, &height,
1230 &bit_depth, &color_type, &interlace_type,
1231 &compression_type, &filter_method);
1233 width - holds the width of the image
1234 in pixels (up to 2^31).
1236 height - holds the height of the image
1237 in pixels (up to 2^31).
1239 bit_depth - holds the bit depth of one of the
1240 image channels. (valid values are
1241 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and depend also on
1242 the color_type. See also
1243 significant bits (sBIT) below).
1245 color_type - describes which color/alpha channels
1248 (bit depths 1, 2, 4, 8, 16)
1249 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY_ALPHA
1251 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_PALETTE
1252 (bit depths 1, 2, 4, 8)
1255 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA
1258 PNG_COLOR_MASK_PALETTE
1259 PNG_COLOR_MASK_COLOR
1260 PNG_COLOR_MASK_ALPHA
1262 interlace_type - (PNG_INTERLACE_NONE or
1263 PNG_INTERLACE_ADAM7)
1265 compression_type - (must be PNG_COMPRESSION_TYPE_BASE
1268 filter_method - (must be PNG_FILTER_TYPE_BASE
1269 for PNG 1.0, and can also be
1270 PNG_INTRAPIXEL_DIFFERENCING if
1271 the PNG datastream is embedded in
1272 a MNG-1.0 datastream)
1274 Any of width, height, color_type, bit_depth,
1275 interlace_type, compression_type, or filter_method can
1276 be NULL if you are not interested in their values.
1278 Note that png_get_IHDR() returns 32-bit data into
1279 the application's width and height variables.
1280 This is an unsafe situation if these are not png_uint_32
1281 variables. In such situations, the
1282 png_get_image_width() and png_get_image_height()
1283 functions described below are safer.
1285 width = png_get_image_width(png_ptr,
1288 height = png_get_image_height(png_ptr,
1291 bit_depth = png_get_bit_depth(png_ptr,
1294 color_type = png_get_color_type(png_ptr,
1297 interlace_type = png_get_interlace_type(png_ptr,
1300 compression_type = png_get_compression_type(png_ptr,
1303 filter_method = png_get_filter_type(png_ptr,
1306 channels = png_get_channels(png_ptr, info_ptr);
1308 channels - number of channels of info for the
1309 color type (valid values are 1 (GRAY,
1310 PALETTE), 2 (GRAY_ALPHA), 3 (RGB),
1311 4 (RGB_ALPHA or RGB + filler byte))
1313 rowbytes = png_get_rowbytes(png_ptr, info_ptr);
1315 rowbytes - number of bytes needed to hold a row
1317 signature = png_get_signature(png_ptr, info_ptr);
1319 signature - holds the signature read from the
1320 file (if any). The data is kept in
1321 the same offset it would be if the
1322 whole signature were read (i.e. if an
1323 application had already read in 4
1324 bytes of signature before starting
1325 libpng, the remaining 4 bytes would
1326 be in signature[4] through signature[7]
1327 (see png_set_sig_bytes())).
1329 These are also important, but their validity depends on whether the chunk
1330 has been read. The png_get_valid(png_ptr, info_ptr, PNG_INFO_<chunk>) and
1331 png_get_<chunk>(png_ptr, info_ptr, ...) functions return non-zero if the
1332 data has been read, or zero if it is missing. The parameters to the
1333 png_get_<chunk> are set directly if they are simple data types, or a
1334 pointer into the info_ptr is returned for any complex types.
1336 The colorspace data from gAMA, cHRM, sRGB, iCCP, and sBIT chunks
1337 is simply returned to give the application information about how the
1338 image was encoded. Libpng itself only does transformations using the file
1339 gamma when combining semitransparent pixels with the background color, and,
1340 since libpng-1.6.0, when converting between 8-bit sRGB and 16-bit linear pixels
1341 within the simplified API. Libpng also uses the file gamma when converting
1342 RGB to gray, beginning with libpng-1.0.5, if the application calls
1343 png_set_rgb_to_gray()).
1345 png_get_PLTE(png_ptr, info_ptr, &palette,
1348 palette - the palette for the file
1349 (array of png_color)
1351 num_palette - number of entries in the palette
1353 png_get_gAMA(png_ptr, info_ptr, &file_gamma);
1354 png_get_gAMA_fixed(png_ptr, info_ptr, &int_file_gamma);
1356 file_gamma - the gamma at which the file is
1357 written (PNG_INFO_gAMA)
1359 int_file_gamma - 100,000 times the gamma at which the
1362 png_get_cHRM(png_ptr, info_ptr, &white_x, &white_y, &red_x,
1363 &red_y, &green_x, &green_y, &blue_x, &blue_y)
1364 png_get_cHRM_XYZ(png_ptr, info_ptr, &red_X, &red_Y, &red_Z,
1365 &green_X, &green_Y, &green_Z, &blue_X, &blue_Y,
1367 png_get_cHRM_fixed(png_ptr, info_ptr, &int_white_x,
1368 &int_white_y, &int_red_x, &int_red_y,
1369 &int_green_x, &int_green_y, &int_blue_x,
1371 png_get_cHRM_XYZ_fixed(png_ptr, info_ptr, &int_red_X, &int_red_Y,
1372 &int_red_Z, &int_green_X, &int_green_Y,
1373 &int_green_Z, &int_blue_X, &int_blue_Y,
1376 {white,red,green,blue}_{x,y}
1377 A color space encoding specified using the
1378 chromaticities of the end points and the
1379 white point. (PNG_INFO_cHRM)
1381 {red,green,blue}_{X,Y,Z}
1382 A color space encoding specified using the
1383 encoding end points - the CIE tristimulus
1384 specification of the intended color of the red,
1385 green and blue channels in the PNG RGB data.
1386 The white point is simply the sum of the three
1387 end points. (PNG_INFO_cHRM)
1389 png_get_sRGB(png_ptr, info_ptr, &srgb_intent);
1391 srgb_intent - the rendering intent (PNG_INFO_sRGB)
1392 The presence of the sRGB chunk
1393 means that the pixel data is in the
1394 sRGB color space. This chunk also
1395 implies specific values of gAMA and
1398 png_get_iCCP(png_ptr, info_ptr, &name,
1399 &compression_type, &profile, &proflen);
1401 name - The profile name.
1403 compression_type - The compression type; always
1404 PNG_COMPRESSION_TYPE_BASE for PNG 1.0.
1405 You may give NULL to this argument to
1408 profile - International Color Consortium color
1409 profile data. May contain NULs.
1411 proflen - length of profile data in bytes.
1413 png_get_sBIT(png_ptr, info_ptr, &sig_bit);
1415 sig_bit - the number of significant bits for
1416 (PNG_INFO_sBIT) each of the gray,
1417 red, green, and blue channels,
1418 whichever are appropriate for the
1419 given color type (png_color_16)
1421 png_get_tRNS(png_ptr, info_ptr, &trans_alpha,
1422 &num_trans, &trans_color);
1424 trans_alpha - array of alpha (transparency)
1425 entries for palette (PNG_INFO_tRNS)
1427 num_trans - number of transparent entries
1430 trans_color - graylevel or color sample values of
1431 the single transparent color for
1432 non-paletted images (PNG_INFO_tRNS)
1434 png_get_hIST(png_ptr, info_ptr, &hist);
1437 hist - histogram of palette (array of
1440 png_get_tIME(png_ptr, info_ptr, &mod_time);
1442 mod_time - time image was last modified
1445 png_get_bKGD(png_ptr, info_ptr, &background);
1447 background - background color (of type
1448 png_color_16p) (PNG_VALID_bKGD)
1449 valid 16-bit red, green and blue
1450 values, regardless of color_type
1452 num_comments = png_get_text(png_ptr, info_ptr,
1453 &text_ptr, &num_text);
1455 num_comments - number of comments
1457 text_ptr - array of png_text holding image
1460 text_ptr[i].compression - type of compression used
1461 on "text" PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE
1462 PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
1463 PNG_ITXT_COMPRESSION_NONE
1464 PNG_ITXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
1466 text_ptr[i].key - keyword for comment. Must contain
1469 text_ptr[i].text - text comments for current
1470 keyword. Can be empty.
1472 text_ptr[i].text_length - length of text string,
1473 after decompression, 0 for iTXt
1475 text_ptr[i].itxt_length - length of itxt string,
1476 after decompression, 0 for tEXt/zTXt
1478 text_ptr[i].lang - language of comment (empty
1479 string for unknown).
1481 text_ptr[i].lang_key - keyword in UTF-8
1482 (empty string for unknown).
1484 Note that the itxt_length, lang, and lang_key
1485 members of the text_ptr structure only exist when the
1486 library is built with iTXt chunk support. Prior to
1487 libpng-1.4.0 the library was built by default without
1488 iTXt support. Also note that when iTXt is supported,
1489 they contain NULL pointers when the "compression"
1490 field contains PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE or
1491 PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt.
1493 num_text - number of comments (same as
1494 num_comments; you can put NULL here
1495 to avoid the duplication)
1497 Note while png_set_text() will accept text, language,
1498 and translated keywords that can be NULL pointers, the
1499 structure returned by png_get_text will always contain
1500 regular zero-terminated C strings. They might be
1501 empty strings but they will never be NULL pointers.
1503 num_spalettes = png_get_sPLT(png_ptr, info_ptr,
1506 num_spalettes - number of sPLT chunks read.
1508 palette_ptr - array of palette structures holding
1509 contents of one or more sPLT chunks
1512 png_get_oFFs(png_ptr, info_ptr, &offset_x, &offset_y,
1515 offset_x - positive offset from the left edge
1516 of the screen (can be negative)
1518 offset_y - positive offset from the top edge
1519 of the screen (can be negative)
1521 unit_type - PNG_OFFSET_PIXEL, PNG_OFFSET_MICROMETER
1523 png_get_pHYs(png_ptr, info_ptr, &res_x, &res_y,
1526 res_x - pixels/unit physical resolution in
1529 res_y - pixels/unit physical resolution in
1532 unit_type - PNG_RESOLUTION_UNKNOWN,
1533 PNG_RESOLUTION_METER
1535 png_get_sCAL(png_ptr, info_ptr, &unit, &width,
1538 unit - physical scale units (an integer)
1540 width - width of a pixel in physical scale units
1542 height - height of a pixel in physical scale units
1543 (width and height are doubles)
1545 png_get_sCAL_s(png_ptr, info_ptr, &unit, &width,
1548 unit - physical scale units (an integer)
1550 width - width of a pixel in physical scale units
1551 (expressed as a string)
1553 height - height of a pixel in physical scale units
1554 (width and height are strings like "2.54")
1556 num_unknown_chunks = png_get_unknown_chunks(png_ptr,
1557 info_ptr, &unknowns)
1559 unknowns - array of png_unknown_chunk
1560 structures holding unknown chunks
1562 unknowns[i].name - name of unknown chunk
1564 unknowns[i].data - data of unknown chunk
1566 unknowns[i].size - size of unknown chunk's data
1568 unknowns[i].location - position of chunk in file
1570 The value of "i" corresponds to the order in which the
1571 chunks were read from the PNG file or inserted with the
1572 png_set_unknown_chunks() function.
1574 The value of "location" is a bitwise "or" of
1576 PNG_HAVE_IHDR (0x01)
1577 PNG_HAVE_PLTE (0x02)
1578 PNG_AFTER_IDAT (0x08)
1580 The data from the pHYs chunk can be retrieved in several convenient
1583 res_x = png_get_x_pixels_per_meter(png_ptr,
1586 res_y = png_get_y_pixels_per_meter(png_ptr,
1589 res_x_and_y = png_get_pixels_per_meter(png_ptr,
1592 res_x = png_get_x_pixels_per_inch(png_ptr,
1595 res_y = png_get_y_pixels_per_inch(png_ptr,
1598 res_x_and_y = png_get_pixels_per_inch(png_ptr,
1601 aspect_ratio = png_get_pixel_aspect_ratio(png_ptr,
1604 Each of these returns 0 [signifying "unknown"] if
1605 the data is not present or if res_x is 0;
1606 res_x_and_y is 0 if res_x != res_y
1608 Note that because of the way the resolutions are
1609 stored internally, the inch conversions won't
1610 come out to exactly even number. For example,
1611 72 dpi is stored as 0.28346 pixels/meter, and
1612 when this is retrieved it is 71.9988 dpi, so
1613 be sure to round the returned value appropriately
1614 if you want to display a reasonable-looking result.
1616 The data from the oFFs chunk can be retrieved in several convenient
1619 x_offset = png_get_x_offset_microns(png_ptr, info_ptr);
1621 y_offset = png_get_y_offset_microns(png_ptr, info_ptr);
1623 x_offset = png_get_x_offset_inches(png_ptr, info_ptr);
1625 y_offset = png_get_y_offset_inches(png_ptr, info_ptr);
1627 Each of these returns 0 [signifying "unknown" if both
1628 x and y are 0] if the data is not present or if the
1629 chunk is present but the unit is the pixel. The
1630 remark about inexact inch conversions applies here
1631 as well, because a value in inches can't always be
1632 converted to microns and back without some loss
1635 For more information, see the
1636 PNG specification for chunk contents. Be careful with trusting
1637 rowbytes, as some of the transformations could increase the space
1638 needed to hold a row (expand, filler, gray_to_rgb, etc.).
1639 See png_read_update_info(), below.
1641 A quick word about text_ptr and num_text. PNG stores comments in
1642 keyword/text pairs, one pair per chunk, with no limit on the number
1643 of text chunks, and a 2^31 byte limit on their size. While there are
1644 suggested keywords, there is no requirement to restrict the use to these
1645 strings. It is strongly suggested that keywords and text be sensible
1646 to humans (that's the point), so don't use abbreviations. Non-printing
1647 symbols are not allowed. See the PNG specification for more details.
1648 There is also no requirement to have text after the keyword.
1650 Keywords should be limited to 79 Latin-1 characters without leading or
1651 trailing spaces, but non-consecutive spaces are allowed within the
1652 keyword. It is possible to have the same keyword any number of times.
1653 The text_ptr is an array of png_text structures, each holding a
1654 pointer to a language string, a pointer to a keyword and a pointer to
1655 a text string. The text string, language code, and translated
1656 keyword may be empty or NULL pointers. The keyword/text
1657 pairs are put into the array in the order that they are received.
1658 However, some or all of the text chunks may be after the image, so, to
1659 make sure you have read all the text chunks, don't mess with these
1660 until after you read the stuff after the image. This will be
1661 mentioned again below in the discussion that goes with png_read_end().
1663 Input transformations
1665 After you've read the header information, you can set up the library
1666 to handle any special transformations of the image data. The various
1667 ways to transform the data will be described in the order that they
1668 should occur. This is important, as some of these change the color
1669 type and/or bit depth of the data, and some others only work on
1670 certain color types and bit depths.
1672 Transformations you request are ignored if they don't have any meaning for a
1673 particular input data format. However some transformations can have an effect
1674 as a result of a previous transformation. If you specify a contradictory set of
1675 transformations, for example both adding and removing the alpha channel, you
1676 cannot predict the final result.
1678 The color used for the transparency values should be supplied in the same
1679 format/depth as the current image data. It is stored in the same format/depth
1680 as the image data in a tRNS chunk, so this is what libpng expects for this data.
1682 The color used for the background value depends on the need_expand argument as
1685 Data will be decoded into the supplied row buffers packed into bytes
1686 unless the library has been told to transform it into another format.
1687 For example, 4 bit/pixel paletted or grayscale data will be returned
1688 2 pixels/byte with the leftmost pixel in the high-order bits of the byte,
1689 unless png_set_packing() is called. 8-bit RGB data will be stored
1690 in RGB RGB RGB format unless png_set_filler() or png_set_add_alpha()
1691 is called to insert filler bytes, either before or after each RGB triplet.
1693 16-bit RGB data will be returned RRGGBB RRGGBB, with the most significant
1694 byte of the color value first, unless png_set_scale_16() is called to
1695 transform it to regular RGB RGB triplets, or png_set_filler() or
1696 png_set_add alpha() is called to insert two filler bytes, either before
1697 or after each RRGGBB triplet. Similarly, 8-bit or 16-bit grayscale data can
1698 be modified with png_set_filler(), png_set_add_alpha(), png_set_strip_16(),
1699 or png_set_scale_16().
1701 The following code transforms grayscale images of less than 8 to 8 bits,
1702 changes paletted images to RGB, and adds a full alpha channel if there is
1703 transparency information in a tRNS chunk. This is most useful on
1704 grayscale images with bit depths of 2 or 4 or if there is a multiple-image
1705 viewing application that wishes to treat all images in the same way.
1707 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_PALETTE)
1708 png_set_palette_to_rgb(png_ptr);
1710 if (png_get_valid(png_ptr, info_ptr,
1711 PNG_INFO_tRNS)) png_set_tRNS_to_alpha(png_ptr);
1713 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY &&
1714 bit_depth < 8) png_set_expand_gray_1_2_4_to_8(png_ptr);
1716 The first two functions are actually aliases for png_set_expand(), added
1717 in libpng version 1.0.4, with the function names expanded to improve code
1718 readability. In some future version they may actually do different
1721 As of libpng version 1.2.9, png_set_expand_gray_1_2_4_to_8() was
1722 added. It expands the sample depth without changing tRNS to alpha.
1724 As of libpng version 1.5.2, png_set_expand_16() was added. It behaves as
1725 png_set_expand(); however, the resultant channels have 16 bits rather than 8.
1726 Use this when the output color or gray channels are made linear to avoid fairly
1727 severe accuracy loss.
1730 png_set_expand_16(png_ptr);
1732 PNG can have files with 16 bits per channel. If you only can handle
1733 8 bits per channel, this will strip the pixels down to 8-bit.
1735 if (bit_depth == 16)
1736 #if PNG_LIBPNG_VER >= 10504
1737 png_set_scale_16(png_ptr);
1739 png_set_strip_16(png_ptr);
1742 (The more accurate "png_set_scale_16()" API became available in libpng version
1745 If you need to process the alpha channel on the image separately from the image
1746 data (for example if you convert it to a bitmap mask) it is possible to have
1747 libpng strip the channel leaving just RGB or gray data:
1749 if (color_type & PNG_COLOR_MASK_ALPHA)
1750 png_set_strip_alpha(png_ptr);
1752 If you strip the alpha channel you need to find some other way of dealing with
1753 the information. If, instead, you want to convert the image to an opaque
1754 version with no alpha channel use png_set_background; see below.
1756 As of libpng version 1.5.2, almost all useful expansions are supported, the
1757 major ommissions are conversion of grayscale to indexed images (which can be
1758 done trivially in the application) and conversion of indexed to grayscale (which
1759 can be done by a trivial manipulation of the palette.)
1761 In the following table, the 01 means grayscale with depth<8, 31 means
1762 indexed with depth<8, other numerals represent the color type, "T" means
1763 the tRNS chunk is present, A means an alpha channel is present, and O
1764 means tRNS or alpha is present but all pixels in the image are opaque.
1766 FROM 01 31 0 0T 0O 2 2T 2O 3 3T 3O 4A 4O 6A 6O
1768 01 - [G] - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1769 31 [Q] Q [Q] [Q] [Q] Q Q Q Q Q Q [Q] [Q] Q Q
1770 0 1 G + . . G G G G G G B B GB GB
1771 0T lt Gt t + . Gt G G Gt G G Bt Bt GBt GBt
1772 0O lt Gt t . + Gt Gt G Gt Gt G Bt Bt GBt GBt
1773 2 C P C C C + . . C - - CB CB B B
1774 2T Ct - Ct C C t + t - - - CBt CBt Bt Bt
1775 2O Ct - Ct C C t t + - - - CBt CBt Bt Bt
1776 3 [Q] p [Q] [Q] [Q] Q Q Q + . . [Q] [Q] Q Q
1777 3T [Qt] p [Qt][Q] [Q] Qt Qt Qt t + t [Qt][Qt] Qt Qt
1778 3O [Qt] p [Qt][Q] [Q] Qt Qt Qt t t + [Qt][Qt] Qt Qt
1779 4A lA G A T T GA GT GT GA GT GT + BA G GBA
1780 4O lA GBA A T T GA GT GT GA GT GT BA + GBA G
1781 6A CA PA CA C C A T tT PA P P C CBA + BA
1782 6O CA PBA CA C C A tT T PA P P CBA C BA +
1785 "+" identifies entries where 'from' and 'to' are the same.
1786 "-" means the transformation is not supported.
1787 "." means nothing is necessary (a tRNS chunk can just be ignored).
1788 "t" means the transformation is obtained by png_set_tRNS.
1789 "A" means the transformation is obtained by png_set_add_alpha().
1790 "X" means the transformation is obtained by png_set_expand().
1791 "1" means the transformation is obtained by
1792 png_set_expand_gray_1_2_4_to_8() (and by png_set_expand()
1793 if there is no transparency in the original or the final
1795 "C" means the transformation is obtained by png_set_gray_to_rgb().
1796 "G" means the transformation is obtained by png_set_rgb_to_gray().
1797 "P" means the transformation is obtained by
1798 png_set_expand_palette_to_rgb().
1799 "p" means the transformation is obtained by png_set_packing().
1800 "Q" means the transformation is obtained by png_set_quantize().
1801 "T" means the transformation is obtained by
1802 png_set_tRNS_to_alpha().
1803 "B" means the transformation is obtained by
1804 png_set_background(), or png_strip_alpha().
1806 When an entry has multiple transforms listed all are required to cause the
1807 right overall transformation. When two transforms are separated by a comma
1808 either will do the job. When transforms are enclosed in [] the transform should
1809 do the job but this is currently unimplemented - a different format will result
1810 if the suggested transformations are used.
1812 In PNG files, the alpha channel in an image
1813 is the level of opacity. If you need the alpha channel in an image to
1814 be the level of transparency instead of opacity, you can invert the
1815 alpha channel (or the tRNS chunk data) after it's read, so that 0 is
1816 fully opaque and 255 (in 8-bit or paletted images) or 65535 (in 16-bit
1817 images) is fully transparent, with
1819 png_set_invert_alpha(png_ptr);
1821 PNG files pack pixels of bit depths 1, 2, and 4 into bytes as small as
1822 they can, resulting in, for example, 8 pixels per byte for 1 bit
1823 files. This code expands to 1 pixel per byte without changing the
1824 values of the pixels:
1827 png_set_packing(png_ptr);
1829 PNG files have possible bit depths of 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16. All pixels
1830 stored in a PNG image have been "scaled" or "shifted" up to the next
1831 higher possible bit depth (e.g. from 5 bits/sample in the range [0,31]
1832 to 8 bits/sample in the range [0, 255]). However, it is also possible
1833 to convert the PNG pixel data back to the original bit depth of the
1834 image. This call reduces the pixels back down to the original bit depth:
1836 png_color_8p sig_bit;
1838 if (png_get_sBIT(png_ptr, info_ptr, &sig_bit))
1839 png_set_shift(png_ptr, sig_bit);
1841 PNG files store 3-color pixels in red, green, blue order. This code
1842 changes the storage of the pixels to blue, green, red:
1844 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB ||
1845 color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA)
1846 png_set_bgr(png_ptr);
1848 PNG files store RGB pixels packed into 3 or 6 bytes. This code expands them
1849 into 4 or 8 bytes for windowing systems that need them in this format:
1851 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB)
1852 png_set_filler(png_ptr, filler, PNG_FILLER_BEFORE);
1854 where "filler" is the 8-bit or 16-bit number to fill with, and the location
1855 is either PNG_FILLER_BEFORE or PNG_FILLER_AFTER, depending upon whether
1856 you want the filler before the RGB or after. When filling an 8-bit pixel,
1857 the least significant 8 bits of the number are used, if a 16-bit number is
1858 supplied. This transformation does not affect images that already have full
1859 alpha channels. To add an opaque alpha channel, use filler=0xffff and
1860 PNG_FILLER_AFTER which will generate RGBA pixels.
1862 Note that png_set_filler() does not change the color type. If you want
1863 to do that, you can add a true alpha channel with
1865 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB ||
1866 color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY)
1867 png_set_add_alpha(png_ptr, filler, PNG_FILLER_AFTER);
1869 where "filler" contains the alpha value to assign to each pixel.
1870 The png_set_add_alpha() function was added in libpng-1.2.7.
1872 If you are reading an image with an alpha channel, and you need the
1873 data as ARGB instead of the normal PNG format RGBA:
1875 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA)
1876 png_set_swap_alpha(png_ptr);
1878 For some uses, you may want a grayscale image to be represented as
1879 RGB. This code will do that conversion:
1881 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY ||
1882 color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY_ALPHA)
1883 png_set_gray_to_rgb(png_ptr);
1885 Conversely, you can convert an RGB or RGBA image to grayscale or grayscale
1888 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB ||
1889 color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA)
1890 png_set_rgb_to_gray(png_ptr, error_action,
1891 double red_weight, double green_weight);
1893 error_action = 1: silently do the conversion
1895 error_action = 2: issue a warning if the original
1896 image has any pixel where
1897 red != green or red != blue
1899 error_action = 3: issue an error and abort the
1900 conversion if the original
1901 image has any pixel where
1902 red != green or red != blue
1904 red_weight: weight of red component
1906 green_weight: weight of green component
1907 If either weight is negative, default
1910 In the corresponding fixed point API the red_weight and green_weight values are
1911 simply scaled by 100,000:
1913 png_set_rgb_to_gray(png_ptr, error_action,
1914 png_fixed_point red_weight,
1915 png_fixed_point green_weight);
1917 If you have set error_action = 1 or 2, you can
1918 later check whether the image really was gray, after processing
1919 the image rows, with the png_get_rgb_to_gray_status(png_ptr) function.
1920 It will return a png_byte that is zero if the image was gray or
1921 1 if there were any non-gray pixels. Background and sBIT data
1922 will be silently converted to grayscale, using the green channel
1923 data for sBIT, regardless of the error_action setting.
1925 The default values come from the PNG file cHRM chunk if present; otherwise, the
1926 defaults correspond to the ITU-R recommendation 709, and also the sRGB color
1927 space, as recommended in the Charles Poynton's Colour FAQ,
1928 Copyright (c) 2006-11-28 Charles Poynton, in section 9:
1930 <http://www.poynton.com/notes/colour_and_gamma/ColorFAQ.html#RTFToC9>
1932 Y = 0.2126 * R + 0.7152 * G + 0.0722 * B
1934 Previous versions of this document, 1998 through 2002, recommended a slightly
1937 Y = 0.212671 * R + 0.715160 * G + 0.072169 * B
1939 Libpng uses an integer approximation:
1941 Y = (6968 * R + 23434 * G + 2366 * B)/32768
1943 The calculation is done in a linear colorspace, if the image gamma
1946 The png_set_background() function has been described already; it tells libpng to
1947 composite images with alpha or simple transparency against the supplied
1948 background color. For compatibility with versions of libpng earlier than
1949 libpng-1.5.4 it is recommended that you call the function after reading the file
1950 header, even if you don't want to use the color in a bKGD chunk, if one exists.
1952 If the PNG file contains a bKGD chunk (PNG_INFO_bKGD valid),
1953 you may use this color, or supply another color more suitable for
1954 the current display (e.g., the background color from a web page). You
1955 need to tell libpng how the color is represented, both the format of the
1956 component values in the color (the number of bits) and the gamma encoding of the
1957 color. The function takes two arguments, background_gamma_mode and need_expand
1958 to convey this information; however, only two combinations are likely to be
1961 png_color_16 my_background;
1962 png_color_16p image_background;
1964 if (png_get_bKGD(png_ptr, info_ptr, &image_background))
1965 png_set_background(png_ptr, image_background,
1966 PNG_BACKGROUND_GAMMA_FILE, 1/*needs to be expanded*/, 1);
1968 png_set_background(png_ptr, &my_background,
1969 PNG_BACKGROUND_GAMMA_SCREEN, 0/*do not expand*/, 1);
1971 The second call was described above - my_background is in the format of the
1972 final, display, output produced by libpng. Because you now know the format of
1973 the PNG it is possible to avoid the need to choose either 8-bit or 16-bit
1974 output and to retain palette images (the palette colors will be modified
1975 appropriately and the tRNS chunk removed.) However, if you are doing this,
1976 take great care not to ask for transformations without checking first that
1979 In the first call the background color has the original bit depth and color type
1980 of the PNG file. So, for palette images the color is supplied as a palette
1981 index and for low bit greyscale images the color is a reduced bit value in
1982 image_background->gray.
1984 If you didn't call png_set_gamma() before reading the file header, for example
1985 if you need your code to remain compatible with older versions of libpng prior
1986 to libpng-1.5.4, this is the place to call it.
1988 Do not call it if you called png_set_alpha_mode(); doing so will damage the
1989 settings put in place by png_set_alpha_mode(). (If png_set_alpha_mode() is
1990 supported then you can certainly do png_set_gamma() before reading the PNG
1993 This API unconditionally sets the screen and file gamma values, so it will
1994 override the value in the PNG file unless it is called before the PNG file
1995 reading starts. For this reason you must always call it with the PNG file
1996 value when you call it in this position:
1998 if (png_get_gAMA(png_ptr, info_ptr, &file_gamma))
1999 png_set_gamma(png_ptr, screen_gamma, file_gamma);
2002 png_set_gamma(png_ptr, screen_gamma, 0.45455);
2004 If you need to reduce an RGB file to a paletted file, or if a paletted
2005 file has more entries than will fit on your screen, png_set_quantize()
2006 will do that. Note that this is a simple match quantization that merely
2007 finds the closest color available. This should work fairly well with
2008 optimized palettes, but fairly badly with linear color cubes. If you
2009 pass a palette that is larger than maximum_colors, the file will
2010 reduce the number of colors in the palette so it will fit into
2011 maximum_colors. If there is a histogram, libpng will use it to make
2012 more intelligent choices when reducing the palette. If there is no
2013 histogram, it may not do as good a job.
2015 if (color_type & PNG_COLOR_MASK_COLOR)
2017 if (png_get_valid(png_ptr, info_ptr,
2020 png_uint_16p histogram = NULL;
2022 png_get_hIST(png_ptr, info_ptr,
2024 png_set_quantize(png_ptr, palette, num_palette,
2025 max_screen_colors, histogram, 1);
2030 png_color std_color_cube[MAX_SCREEN_COLORS] =
2033 png_set_quantize(png_ptr, std_color_cube,
2034 MAX_SCREEN_COLORS, MAX_SCREEN_COLORS,
2039 PNG files describe monochrome as black being zero and white being one.
2040 The following code will reverse this (make black be one and white be
2043 if (bit_depth == 1 && color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY)
2044 png_set_invert_mono(png_ptr);
2046 This function can also be used to invert grayscale and gray-alpha images:
2048 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY ||
2049 color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY_ALPHA)
2050 png_set_invert_mono(png_ptr);
2052 PNG files store 16-bit pixels in network byte order (big-endian,
2053 ie. most significant bits first). This code changes the storage to the
2054 other way (little-endian, i.e. least significant bits first, the
2055 way PCs store them):
2057 if (bit_depth == 16)
2058 png_set_swap(png_ptr);
2060 If you are using packed-pixel images (1, 2, or 4 bits/pixel), and you
2061 need to change the order the pixels are packed into bytes, you can use:
2064 png_set_packswap(png_ptr);
2066 Finally, you can write your own transformation function if none of
2067 the existing ones meets your needs. This is done by setting a callback
2070 png_set_read_user_transform_fn(png_ptr,
2073 You must supply the function
2075 void read_transform_fn(png_structp png_ptr, png_row_infop
2076 row_info, png_bytep data)
2078 See pngtest.c for a working example. Your function will be called
2079 after all of the other transformations have been processed. Take care with
2080 interlaced images if you do the interlace yourself - the width of the row is the
2081 width in 'row_info', not the overall image width.
2083 If supported, libpng provides two information routines that you can use to find
2084 where you are in processing the image:
2086 png_get_current_pass_number(png_structp png_ptr);
2087 png_get_current_row_number(png_structp png_ptr);
2089 Don't try using these outside a transform callback - firstly they are only
2090 supported if user transforms are supported, secondly they may well return
2091 unexpected results unless the row is actually being processed at the moment they
2095 images the value returned is the row in the input sub-image image. Use
2096 PNG_ROW_FROM_PASS_ROW(row, pass) and PNG_COL_FROM_PASS_COL(col, pass) to
2097 find the output pixel (x,y) given an interlaced sub-image pixel (row,col,pass).
2099 The discussion of interlace handling above contains more information on how to
2102 You can also set up a pointer to a user structure for use by your
2103 callback function, and you can inform libpng that your transform
2104 function will change the number of channels or bit depth with the
2107 png_set_user_transform_info(png_ptr, user_ptr,
2108 user_depth, user_channels);
2110 The user's application, not libpng, is responsible for allocating and
2111 freeing any memory required for the user structure.
2113 You can retrieve the pointer via the function
2114 png_get_user_transform_ptr(). For example:
2116 voidp read_user_transform_ptr =
2117 png_get_user_transform_ptr(png_ptr);
2119 The last thing to handle is interlacing; this is covered in detail below,
2120 but you must call the function here if you want libpng to handle expansion
2121 of the interlaced image.
2123 number_of_passes = png_set_interlace_handling(png_ptr);
2125 After setting the transformations, libpng can update your png_info
2126 structure to reflect any transformations you've requested with this
2129 png_read_update_info(png_ptr, info_ptr);
2131 This is most useful to update the info structure's rowbytes
2132 field so you can use it to allocate your image memory. This function
2133 will also update your palette with the correct screen_gamma and
2134 background if these have been given with the calls above. You may
2135 only call png_read_update_info() once with a particular info_ptr.
2137 After you call png_read_update_info(), you can allocate any
2138 memory you need to hold the image. The row data is simply
2139 raw byte data for all forms of images. As the actual allocation
2140 varies among applications, no example will be given. If you
2141 are allocating one large chunk, you will need to build an
2142 array of pointers to each row, as it will be needed for some
2143 of the functions below.
2145 Remember: Before you call png_read_update_info(), the png_get_*()
2146 functions return the values corresponding to the original PNG image.
2147 After you call png_read_update_info the values refer to the image
2148 that libpng will output. Consequently you must call all the png_set_
2149 functions before you call png_read_update_info(). This is particularly
2150 important for png_set_interlace_handling() - if you are going to call
2151 png_read_update_info() you must call png_set_interlace_handling() before
2152 it unless you want to receive interlaced output.
2156 After you've allocated memory, you can read the image data.
2157 The simplest way to do this is in one function call. If you are
2158 allocating enough memory to hold the whole image, you can just
2159 call png_read_image() and libpng will read in all the image data
2160 and put it in the memory area supplied. You will need to pass in
2161 an array of pointers to each row.
2163 This function automatically handles interlacing, so you don't
2164 need to call png_set_interlace_handling() (unless you call
2165 png_read_update_info()) or call this function multiple times, or any
2166 of that other stuff necessary with png_read_rows().
2168 png_read_image(png_ptr, row_pointers);
2170 where row_pointers is:
2172 png_bytep row_pointers[height];
2174 You can point to void or char or whatever you use for pixels.
2176 If you don't want to read in the whole image at once, you can
2177 use png_read_rows() instead. If there is no interlacing (check
2178 interlace_type == PNG_INTERLACE_NONE), this is simple:
2180 png_read_rows(png_ptr, row_pointers, NULL,
2183 where row_pointers is the same as in the png_read_image() call.
2185 If you are doing this just one row at a time, you can do this with
2186 a single row_pointer instead of an array of row_pointers:
2188 png_bytep row_pointer = row;
2189 png_read_row(png_ptr, row_pointer, NULL);
2191 If the file is interlaced (interlace_type != 0 in the IHDR chunk), things
2192 get somewhat harder. The only current (PNG Specification version 1.2)
2193 interlacing type for PNG is (interlace_type == PNG_INTERLACE_ADAM7);
2194 a somewhat complicated 2D interlace scheme, known as Adam7, that
2195 breaks down an image into seven smaller images of varying size, based
2196 on an 8x8 grid. This number is defined (from libpng 1.5) as
2197 PNG_INTERLACE_ADAM7_PASSES in png.h
2199 libpng can fill out those images or it can give them to you "as is".
2200 It is almost always better to have libpng handle the interlacing for you.
2201 If you want the images filled out, there are two ways to do that. The one
2202 mentioned in the PNG specification is to expand each pixel to cover
2203 those pixels that have not been read yet (the "rectangle" method).
2204 This results in a blocky image for the first pass, which gradually
2205 smooths out as more pixels are read. The other method is the "sparkle"
2206 method, where pixels are drawn only in their final locations, with the
2207 rest of the image remaining whatever colors they were initialized to
2208 before the start of the read. The first method usually looks better,
2209 but tends to be slower, as there are more pixels to put in the rows.
2211 If, as is likely, you want libpng to expand the images, call this before
2212 calling png_start_read_image() or png_read_update_info():
2214 if (interlace_type == PNG_INTERLACE_ADAM7)
2216 = png_set_interlace_handling(png_ptr);
2218 This will return the number of passes needed. Currently, this is seven,
2219 but may change if another interlace type is added. This function can be
2220 called even if the file is not interlaced, where it will return one pass.
2221 You then need to read the whole image 'number_of_passes' times. Each time
2222 will distribute the pixels from the current pass to the correct place in
2223 the output image, so you need to supply the same rows to png_read_rows in
2226 If you are not going to display the image after each pass, but are
2227 going to wait until the entire image is read in, use the sparkle
2228 effect. This effect is faster and the end result of either method
2229 is exactly the same. If you are planning on displaying the image
2230 after each pass, the "rectangle" effect is generally considered the
2233 If you only want the "sparkle" effect, just call png_read_rows() as
2234 normal, with the third parameter NULL. Make sure you make pass over
2235 the image number_of_passes times, and you don't change the data in the
2236 rows between calls. You can change the locations of the data, just
2237 not the data. Each pass only writes the pixels appropriate for that
2238 pass, and assumes the data from previous passes is still valid.
2240 png_read_rows(png_ptr, row_pointers, NULL,
2243 If you only want the first effect (the rectangles), do the same as
2244 before except pass the row buffer in the third parameter, and leave
2245 the second parameter NULL.
2247 png_read_rows(png_ptr, NULL, row_pointers,
2250 If you don't want libpng to handle the interlacing details, just call
2251 png_read_rows() PNG_INTERLACE_ADAM7_PASSES times to read in all the images.
2252 Each of the images is a valid image by itself; however, you will almost
2253 certainly need to distribute the pixels from each sub-image to the
2254 correct place. This is where everything gets very tricky.
2256 If you want to retrieve the separate images you must pass the correct
2257 number of rows to each successive call of png_read_rows(). The calculation
2258 gets pretty complicated for small images, where some sub-images may
2259 not even exist because either their width or height ends up zero.
2260 libpng provides two macros to help you in 1.5 and later versions:
2262 png_uint_32 width = PNG_PASS_COLS(image_width, pass_number);
2263 png_uint_32 height = PNG_PASS_ROWS(image_height, pass_number);
2265 Respectively these tell you the width and height of the sub-image
2266 corresponding to the numbered pass. 'pass' is in in the range 0 to 6 -
2267 this can be confusing because the specification refers to the same passes
2268 as 1 to 7! Be careful, you must check both the width and height before
2269 calling png_read_rows() and not call it for that pass if either is zero.
2271 You can, of course, read each sub-image row by row. If you want to
2272 produce optimal code to make a pixel-by-pixel transformation of an
2273 interlaced image this is the best approach; read each row of each pass,
2274 transform it, and write it out to a new interlaced image.
2276 If you want to de-interlace the image yourself libpng provides further
2277 macros to help that tell you where to place the pixels in the output image.
2278 Because the interlacing scheme is rectangular - sub-image pixels are always
2279 arranged on a rectangular grid - all you need to know for each pass is the
2280 starting column and row in the output image of the first pixel plus the
2281 spacing between each pixel. As of libpng 1.5 there are four macros to
2282 retrieve this information:
2284 png_uint_32 x = PNG_PASS_START_COL(pass);
2285 png_uint_32 y = PNG_PASS_START_ROW(pass);
2286 png_uint_32 xStep = 1U << PNG_PASS_COL_SHIFT(pass);
2287 png_uint_32 yStep = 1U << PNG_PASS_ROW_SHIFT(pass);
2289 These allow you to write the obvious loop:
2291 png_uint_32 input_y = 0;
2292 png_uint_32 output_y = PNG_PASS_START_ROW(pass);
2294 while (output_y < output_image_height)
2296 png_uint_32 input_x = 0;
2297 png_uint_32 output_x = PNG_PASS_START_COL(pass);
2299 while (output_x < output_image_width)
2301 image[output_y][output_x] =
2302 subimage[pass][input_y][input_x++];
2311 Notice that the steps between successive output rows and columns are
2312 returned as shifts. This is possible because the pixels in the subimages
2313 are always a power of 2 apart - 1, 2, 4 or 8 pixels - in the original
2314 image. In practice you may need to directly calculate the output coordinate
2315 given an input coordinate. libpng provides two further macros for this
2318 png_uint_32 output_x = PNG_COL_FROM_PASS_COL(input_x, pass);
2319 png_uint_32 output_y = PNG_ROW_FROM_PASS_ROW(input_y, pass);
2321 Finally a pair of macros are provided to tell you if a particular image
2322 row or column appears in a given pass:
2324 int col_in_pass = PNG_COL_IN_INTERLACE_PASS(output_x, pass);
2325 int row_in_pass = PNG_ROW_IN_INTERLACE_PASS(output_y, pass);
2327 Bear in mind that you will probably also need to check the width and height
2328 of the pass in addition to the above to be sure the pass even exists!
2330 With any luck you are convinced by now that you don't want to do your own
2331 interlace handling. In reality normally the only good reason for doing this
2332 is if you are processing PNG files on a pixel-by-pixel basis and don't want
2333 to load the whole file into memory when it is interlaced.
2335 libpng includes a test program, pngvalid, that illustrates reading and
2336 writing of interlaced images. If you can't get interlacing to work in your
2337 code and don't want to leave it to libpng (the recommended approach), see
2338 how pngvalid.c does it.
2340 Finishing a sequential read
2342 After you are finished reading the image through the
2343 low-level interface, you can finish reading the file.
2345 If you want to use a different crc action for handling CRC errors in
2346 chunks after the image data, you can call png_set_crc_action()
2347 again at this point.
2349 If you are interested in comments or time, which may be stored either
2350 before or after the image data, you should pass the separate png_info
2351 struct if you want to keep the comments from before and after the image
2354 png_infop end_info = png_create_info_struct(png_ptr);
2358 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
2363 png_read_end(png_ptr, end_info);
2365 If you are not interested, you should still call png_read_end()
2366 but you can pass NULL, avoiding the need to create an end_info structure.
2367 If you do this, libpng will not process any chunks after IDAT other than
2368 skipping over them and perhaps (depending on whether you have called
2369 png_set_crc_action) checking their CRCs while looking for the IEND chunk.
2371 png_read_end(png_ptr, (png_infop)NULL);
2373 If you don't call png_read_end(), then your file pointer will be
2374 left pointing to the first chunk after the last IDAT, which is probably
2375 not what you want if you expect to read something beyond the end of
2378 When you are done, you can free all memory allocated by libpng like this:
2380 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
2383 or, if you didn't create an end_info structure,
2385 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
2388 It is also possible to individually free the info_ptr members that
2389 point to libpng-allocated storage with the following function:
2391 png_free_data(png_ptr, info_ptr, mask, seq)
2393 mask - identifies data to be freed, a mask
2394 containing the bitwise OR of one or
2396 PNG_FREE_PLTE, PNG_FREE_TRNS,
2397 PNG_FREE_HIST, PNG_FREE_ICCP,
2398 PNG_FREE_PCAL, PNG_FREE_ROWS,
2399 PNG_FREE_SCAL, PNG_FREE_SPLT,
2400 PNG_FREE_TEXT, PNG_FREE_UNKN,
2401 or simply PNG_FREE_ALL
2403 seq - sequence number of item to be freed
2406 This function may be safely called when the relevant storage has
2407 already been freed, or has not yet been allocated, or was allocated
2408 by the user and not by libpng, and will in those cases do nothing.
2409 The "seq" parameter is ignored if only one item of the selected data
2410 type, such as PLTE, is allowed. If "seq" is not -1, and multiple items
2411 are allowed for the data type identified in the mask, such as text or
2412 sPLT, only the n'th item in the structure is freed, where n is "seq".
2414 The default behavior is only to free data that was allocated internally
2415 by libpng. This can be changed, so that libpng will not free the data,
2416 or so that it will free data that was allocated by the user with png_malloc()
2417 or png_calloc() and passed in via a png_set_*() function, with
2419 png_data_freer(png_ptr, info_ptr, freer, mask)
2422 PNG_DESTROY_WILL_FREE_DATA
2423 PNG_SET_WILL_FREE_DATA
2424 PNG_USER_WILL_FREE_DATA
2426 mask - which data elements are affected
2427 same choices as in png_free_data()
2429 This function only affects data that has already been allocated.
2430 You can call this function after reading the PNG data but before calling
2431 any png_set_*() functions, to control whether the user or the png_set_*()
2432 function is responsible for freeing any existing data that might be present,
2433 and again after the png_set_*() functions to control whether the user
2434 or png_destroy_*() is supposed to free the data. When the user assumes
2435 responsibility for libpng-allocated data, the application must use
2436 png_free() to free it, and when the user transfers responsibility to libpng
2437 for data that the user has allocated, the user must have used png_malloc()
2438 or png_calloc() to allocate it.
2440 If you allocated your row_pointers in a single block, as suggested above in
2441 the description of the high level read interface, you must not transfer
2442 responsibility for freeing it to the png_set_rows or png_read_destroy function,
2443 because they would also try to free the individual row_pointers[i].
2445 If you allocated text_ptr.text, text_ptr.lang, and text_ptr.translated_keyword
2446 separately, do not transfer responsibility for freeing text_ptr to libpng,
2447 because when libpng fills a png_text structure it combines these members with
2448 the key member, and png_free_data() will free only text_ptr.key. Similarly,
2449 if you transfer responsibility for free'ing text_ptr from libpng to your
2450 application, your application must not separately free those members.
2452 The png_free_data() function will turn off the "valid" flag for anything
2453 it frees. If you need to turn the flag off for a chunk that was freed by
2454 your application instead of by libpng, you can use
2456 png_set_invalid(png_ptr, info_ptr, mask);
2458 mask - identifies the chunks to be made invalid,
2459 containing the bitwise OR of one or
2461 PNG_INFO_gAMA, PNG_INFO_sBIT,
2462 PNG_INFO_cHRM, PNG_INFO_PLTE,
2463 PNG_INFO_tRNS, PNG_INFO_bKGD,
2464 PNG_INFO_hIST, PNG_INFO_pHYs,
2465 PNG_INFO_oFFs, PNG_INFO_tIME,
2466 PNG_INFO_pCAL, PNG_INFO_sRGB,
2467 PNG_INFO_iCCP, PNG_INFO_sPLT,
2468 PNG_INFO_sCAL, PNG_INFO_IDAT
2470 For a more compact example of reading a PNG image, see the file example.c.
2472 Reading PNG files progressively
2474 The progressive reader is slightly different from the non-progressive
2475 reader. Instead of calling png_read_info(), png_read_rows(), and
2476 png_read_end(), you make one call to png_process_data(), which calls
2477 callbacks when it has the info, a row, or the end of the image. You
2478 set up these callbacks with png_set_progressive_read_fn(). You don't
2479 have to worry about the input/output functions of libpng, as you are
2480 giving the library the data directly in png_process_data(). I will
2481 assume that you have read the section on reading PNG files above,
2482 so I will only highlight the differences (although I will show
2485 png_structp png_ptr;
2488 /* An example code fragment of how you would
2489 initialize the progressive reader in your
2492 initialize_png_reader()
2494 png_ptr = png_create_read_struct
2495 (PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
2496 user_error_fn, user_warning_fn);
2501 info_ptr = png_create_info_struct(png_ptr);
2505 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr,
2506 (png_infopp)NULL, (png_infopp)NULL);
2510 if (setjmp(png_jmpbuf(png_ptr)))
2512 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
2517 /* This one's new. You can provide functions
2518 to be called when the header info is valid,
2519 when each row is completed, and when the image
2520 is finished. If you aren't using all functions,
2521 you can specify NULL parameters. Even when all
2522 three functions are NULL, you need to call
2523 png_set_progressive_read_fn(). You can use
2524 any struct as the user_ptr (cast to a void pointer
2525 for the function call), and retrieve the pointer
2526 from inside the callbacks using the function
2528 png_get_progressive_ptr(png_ptr);
2530 which will return a void pointer, which you have
2531 to cast appropriately.
2533 png_set_progressive_read_fn(png_ptr, (void *)user_ptr,
2534 info_callback, row_callback, end_callback);
2539 /* A code fragment that you call as you receive blocks
2542 process_data(png_bytep buffer, png_uint_32 length)
2544 if (setjmp(png_jmpbuf(png_ptr)))
2546 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
2551 /* This one's new also. Simply give it a chunk
2552 of data from the file stream (in order, of
2553 course). On machines with segmented memory
2554 models machines, don't give it any more than
2555 64K. The library seems to run fine with sizes
2556 of 4K. Although you can give it much less if
2557 necessary (I assume you can give it chunks of
2558 1 byte, I haven't tried less than 256 bytes
2559 yet). When this function returns, you may
2560 want to display any rows that were generated
2561 in the row callback if you don't already do
2564 png_process_data(png_ptr, info_ptr, buffer, length);
2566 /* At this point you can call png_process_data_skip if
2567 you want to handle data the library will skip yourself;
2568 it simply returns the number of bytes to skip (and stops
2569 libpng skipping that number of bytes on the next
2570 png_process_data call).
2574 /* This function is called (as set by
2575 png_set_progressive_read_fn() above) when enough data
2576 has been supplied so all of the header has been
2580 info_callback(png_structp png_ptr, png_infop info)
2582 /* Do any setup here, including setting any of
2583 the transformations mentioned in the Reading
2584 PNG files section. For now, you _must_ call
2585 either png_start_read_image() or
2586 png_read_update_info() after all the
2587 transformations are set (even if you don't set
2588 any). You may start getting rows before
2589 png_process_data() returns, so this is your
2590 last chance to prepare for that.
2592 This is where you turn on interlace handling,
2593 assuming you don't want to do it yourself.
2595 If you need to you can stop the processing of
2596 your original input data at this point by calling
2597 png_process_data_pause. This returns the number
2598 of unprocessed bytes from the last png_process_data
2599 call - it is up to you to ensure that the next call
2600 sees these bytes again. If you don't want to bother
2601 with this you can get libpng to cache the unread
2602 bytes by setting the 'save' parameter (see png.h) but
2603 then libpng will have to copy the data internally.
2607 /* This function is called when each row of image
2610 row_callback(png_structp png_ptr, png_bytep new_row,
2611 png_uint_32 row_num, int pass)
2613 /* If the image is interlaced, and you turned
2614 on the interlace handler, this function will
2615 be called for every row in every pass. Some
2616 of these rows will not be changed from the
2617 previous pass. When the row is not changed,
2618 the new_row variable will be NULL. The rows
2619 and passes are called in order, so you don't
2620 really need the row_num and pass, but I'm
2621 supplying them because it may make your life
2624 If you did not turn on interlace handling then
2625 the callback is called for each row of each
2626 sub-image when the image is interlaced. In this
2627 case 'row_num' is the row in the sub-image, not
2628 the row in the output image as it is in all other
2631 For the non-NULL rows of interlaced images when
2632 you have switched on libpng interlace handling,
2633 you must call png_progressive_combine_row()
2634 passing in the row and the old row. You can
2635 call this function for NULL rows (it will just
2636 return) and for non-interlaced images (it just
2637 does the memcpy for you) if it will make the
2638 code easier. Thus, you can just do this for
2639 all cases if you switch on interlace handling;
2642 png_progressive_combine_row(png_ptr, old_row,
2645 /* where old_row is what was displayed
2646 previously for the row. Note that the first
2647 pass (pass == 0, really) will completely cover
2648 the old row, so the rows do not have to be
2649 initialized. After the first pass (and only
2650 for interlaced images), you will have to pass
2651 the current row, and the function will combine
2652 the old row and the new row.
2654 You can also call png_process_data_pause in this
2655 callback - see above.
2660 end_callback(png_structp png_ptr, png_infop info)
2662 /* This function is called after the whole image
2663 has been read, including any chunks after the
2664 image (up to and including the IEND). You
2665 will usually have the same info chunk as you
2666 had in the header, although some data may have
2667 been added to the comments and time fields.
2669 Most people won't do much here, perhaps setting
2670 a flag that marks the image as finished.
2678 Much of this is very similar to reading. However, everything of
2679 importance is repeated here, so you won't have to constantly look
2680 back up in the reading section to understand writing.
2684 You will want to do the I/O initialization before you get into libpng,
2685 so if it doesn't work, you don't have anything to undo. If you are not
2686 using the standard I/O functions, you will need to replace them with
2687 custom writing functions. See the discussion under Customizing libpng.
2689 FILE *fp = fopen(file_name, "wb");
2694 Next, png_struct and png_info need to be allocated and initialized.
2695 As these can be both relatively large, you may not want to store these
2696 on the stack, unless you have stack space to spare. Of course, you
2697 will want to check if they return NULL. If you are also reading,
2698 you won't want to name your read structure and your write structure
2699 both "png_ptr"; you can call them anything you like, such as
2700 "read_ptr" and "write_ptr". Look at pngtest.c, for example.
2702 png_structp png_ptr = png_create_write_struct
2703 (PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
2704 user_error_fn, user_warning_fn);
2709 png_infop info_ptr = png_create_info_struct(png_ptr);
2712 png_destroy_write_struct(&png_ptr,
2717 If you want to use your own memory allocation routines,
2718 define PNG_USER_MEM_SUPPORTED and use
2719 png_create_write_struct_2() instead of png_create_write_struct():
2721 png_structp png_ptr = png_create_write_struct_2
2722 (PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
2723 user_error_fn, user_warning_fn, (png_voidp)
2724 user_mem_ptr, user_malloc_fn, user_free_fn);
2726 After you have these structures, you will need to set up the
2727 error handling. When libpng encounters an error, it expects to
2728 longjmp() back to your routine. Therefore, you will need to call
2729 setjmp() and pass the png_jmpbuf(png_ptr). If you
2730 write the file from different routines, you will need to update
2731 the png_jmpbuf(png_ptr) every time you enter a new routine that will
2732 call a png_*() function. See your documentation of setjmp/longjmp
2733 for your compiler for more information on setjmp/longjmp. See
2734 the discussion on libpng error handling in the Customizing Libpng
2735 section below for more information on the libpng error handling.
2737 if (setjmp(png_jmpbuf(png_ptr)))
2739 png_destroy_write_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr);
2746 If you would rather avoid the complexity of setjmp/longjmp issues,
2747 you can compile libpng with PNG_NO_SETJMP, in which case
2748 errors will result in a call to PNG_ABORT() which defaults to abort().
2750 You can #define PNG_ABORT() to a function that does something
2751 more useful than abort(), as long as your function does not
2754 Checking for invalid palette index on write was added at libpng
2755 1.5.10. If a pixel contains an invalid (out-of-range) index libpng issues
2756 a benign error. This is enabled by default because this condition is an
2757 error according to the PNG specification, Clause 11.3.2, but the error can
2758 be ignored in each png_ptr with
2760 png_set_check_for_invalid_index(png_ptr, 0);
2762 If the error is ignored, or if png_benign_error() treats it as a warning,
2763 any invalid pixels are written as-is by the encoder, resulting in an
2764 invalid PNG datastream as output. In this case the application is
2765 responsible for ensuring that the pixel indexes are in range when it writes
2766 a PLTE chunk with fewer entries than the bit depth would allow.
2768 Now you need to set up the output code. The default for libpng is to
2769 use the C function fwrite(). If you use this, you will need to pass a
2770 valid FILE * in the function png_init_io(). Be sure that the file is
2771 opened in binary mode. Again, if you wish to handle writing data in
2772 another way, see the discussion on libpng I/O handling in the Customizing
2773 Libpng section below.
2775 png_init_io(png_ptr, fp);
2777 If you are embedding your PNG into a datastream such as MNG, and don't
2778 want libpng to write the 8-byte signature, or if you have already
2779 written the signature in your application, use
2781 png_set_sig_bytes(png_ptr, 8);
2783 to inform libpng that it should not write a signature.
2787 At this point, you can set up a callback function that will be
2788 called after each row has been written, which you can use to control
2789 a progress meter or the like. It's demonstrated in pngtest.c.
2790 You must supply a function
2792 void write_row_callback(png_structp png_ptr, png_uint_32 row,
2795 /* put your code here */
2798 (You can give it another name that you like instead of "write_row_callback")
2800 To inform libpng about your function, use
2802 png_set_write_status_fn(png_ptr, write_row_callback);
2804 When this function is called the row has already been completely processed and
2805 it has also been written out. The 'row' and 'pass' refer to the next row to be
2807 non-interlaced case the row that was just handled is simply one less than the
2808 passed in row number, and pass will always be 0. For the interlaced case the
2809 same applies unless the row value is 0, in which case the row just handled was
2810 the last one from one of the preceding passes. Because interlacing may skip a
2811 pass you cannot be sure that the preceding pass is just 'pass-1', if you really
2812 need to know what the last pass is record (row,pass) from the callback and use
2813 the last recorded value each time.
2815 As with the user transform you can find the output row using the
2816 PNG_ROW_FROM_PASS_ROW macro.
2818 You now have the option of modifying how the compression library will
2819 run. The following functions are mainly for testing, but may be useful
2820 in some cases, like if you need to write PNG files extremely fast and
2821 are willing to give up some compression, or if you want to get the
2822 maximum possible compression at the expense of slower writing. If you
2823 have no special needs in this area, let the library do what it wants by
2824 not calling this function at all, as it has been tuned to deliver a good
2825 speed/compression ratio. The second parameter to png_set_filter() is
2826 the filter method, for which the only valid values are 0 (as of the
2827 July 1999 PNG specification, version 1.2) or 64 (if you are writing
2828 a PNG datastream that is to be embedded in a MNG datastream). The third
2829 parameter is a flag that indicates which filter type(s) are to be tested
2830 for each scanline. See the PNG specification for details on the specific
2834 /* turn on or off filtering, and/or choose
2835 specific filters. You can use either a single
2836 PNG_FILTER_VALUE_NAME or the bitwise OR of one
2837 or more PNG_FILTER_NAME masks.
2839 png_set_filter(png_ptr, 0,
2840 PNG_FILTER_NONE | PNG_FILTER_VALUE_NONE |
2841 PNG_FILTER_SUB | PNG_FILTER_VALUE_SUB |
2842 PNG_FILTER_UP | PNG_FILTER_VALUE_UP |
2843 PNG_FILTER_AVG | PNG_FILTER_VALUE_AVG |
2844 PNG_FILTER_PAETH | PNG_FILTER_VALUE_PAETH|
2847 If an application wants to start and stop using particular filters during
2848 compression, it should start out with all of the filters (to ensure that
2849 the previous row of pixels will be stored in case it's needed later),
2850 and then add and remove them after the start of compression.
2852 If you are writing a PNG datastream that is to be embedded in a MNG
2853 datastream, the second parameter can be either 0 or 64.
2855 The png_set_compression_*() functions interface to the zlib compression
2856 library, and should mostly be ignored unless you really know what you are
2857 doing. The only generally useful call is png_set_compression_level()
2858 which changes how much time zlib spends on trying to compress the image
2859 data. See the Compression Library (zlib.h and algorithm.txt, distributed
2860 with zlib) for details on the compression levels.
2864 /* Set the zlib compression level */
2865 png_set_compression_level(png_ptr,
2866 Z_BEST_COMPRESSION);
2868 /* Set other zlib parameters for compressing IDAT */
2869 png_set_compression_mem_level(png_ptr, 8);
2870 png_set_compression_strategy(png_ptr,
2871 Z_DEFAULT_STRATEGY);
2872 png_set_compression_window_bits(png_ptr, 15);
2873 png_set_compression_method(png_ptr, 8);
2874 png_set_compression_buffer_size(png_ptr, 8192)
2876 /* Set zlib parameters for text compression
2877 * If you don't call these, the parameters
2878 * fall back on those defined for IDAT chunks
2880 png_set_text_compression_mem_level(png_ptr, 8);
2881 png_set_text_compression_strategy(png_ptr,
2882 Z_DEFAULT_STRATEGY);
2883 png_set_text_compression_window_bits(png_ptr, 15);
2884 png_set_text_compression_method(png_ptr, 8);
2886 Setting the contents of info for output
2888 You now need to fill in the png_info structure with all the data you
2889 wish to write before the actual image. Note that the only thing you
2890 are allowed to write after the image is the text chunks and the time
2891 chunk (as of PNG Specification 1.2, anyway). See png_write_end() and
2892 the latest PNG specification for more information on that. If you
2893 wish to write them before the image, fill them in now, and flag that
2894 data as being valid. If you want to wait until after the data, don't
2895 fill them until png_write_end(). For all the fields in png_info and
2896 their data types, see png.h. For explanations of what the fields
2897 contain, see the PNG specification.
2899 Some of the more important parts of the png_info are:
2901 png_set_IHDR(png_ptr, info_ptr, width, height,
2902 bit_depth, color_type, interlace_type,
2903 compression_type, filter_method)
2905 width - holds the width of the image
2906 in pixels (up to 2^31).
2908 height - holds the height of the image
2909 in pixels (up to 2^31).
2911 bit_depth - holds the bit depth of one of the
2913 (valid values are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16
2914 and depend also on the
2915 color_type. See also significant
2918 color_type - describes which color/alpha
2919 channels are present.
2921 (bit depths 1, 2, 4, 8, 16)
2922 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY_ALPHA
2924 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_PALETTE
2925 (bit depths 1, 2, 4, 8)
2928 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA
2931 PNG_COLOR_MASK_PALETTE
2932 PNG_COLOR_MASK_COLOR
2933 PNG_COLOR_MASK_ALPHA
2935 interlace_type - PNG_INTERLACE_NONE or
2938 compression_type - (must be
2939 PNG_COMPRESSION_TYPE_DEFAULT)
2941 filter_method - (must be PNG_FILTER_TYPE_DEFAULT
2942 or, if you are writing a PNG to
2943 be embedded in a MNG datastream,
2945 PNG_INTRAPIXEL_DIFFERENCING)
2947 If you call png_set_IHDR(), the call must appear before any of the
2948 other png_set_*() functions, because they might require access to some of
2949 the IHDR settings. The remaining png_set_*() functions can be called
2952 If you wish, you can reset the compression_type, interlace_type, or
2953 filter_method later by calling png_set_IHDR() again; if you do this, the
2954 width, height, bit_depth, and color_type must be the same in each call.
2956 png_set_PLTE(png_ptr, info_ptr, palette,
2959 palette - the palette for the file
2960 (array of png_color)
2961 num_palette - number of entries in the palette
2963 png_set_gAMA(png_ptr, info_ptr, file_gamma);
2964 png_set_gAMA_fixed(png_ptr, info_ptr, int_file_gamma);
2966 file_gamma - the gamma at which the image was
2967 created (PNG_INFO_gAMA)
2969 int_file_gamma - 100,000 times the gamma at which
2970 the image was created
2972 png_set_cHRM(png_ptr, info_ptr, white_x, white_y, red_x, red_y,
2973 green_x, green_y, blue_x, blue_y)
2974 png_set_cHRM_XYZ(png_ptr, info_ptr, red_X, red_Y, red_Z, green_X,
2975 green_Y, green_Z, blue_X, blue_Y, blue_Z)
2976 png_set_cHRM_fixed(png_ptr, info_ptr, int_white_x, int_white_y,
2977 int_red_x, int_red_y, int_green_x, int_green_y,
2978 int_blue_x, int_blue_y)
2979 png_set_cHRM_XYZ_fixed(png_ptr, info_ptr, int_red_X, int_red_Y,
2980 int_red_Z, int_green_X, int_green_Y, int_green_Z,
2981 int_blue_X, int_blue_Y, int_blue_Z)
2983 {white,red,green,blue}_{x,y}
2984 A color space encoding specified using the chromaticities
2985 of the end points and the white point.
2987 {red,green,blue}_{X,Y,Z}
2988 A color space encoding specified using the encoding end
2989 points - the CIE tristimulus specification of the intended
2990 color of the red, green and blue channels in the PNG RGB
2991 data. The white point is simply the sum of the three end
2994 png_set_sRGB(png_ptr, info_ptr, srgb_intent);
2996 srgb_intent - the rendering intent
2997 (PNG_INFO_sRGB) The presence of
2998 the sRGB chunk means that the pixel
2999 data is in the sRGB color space.
3000 This chunk also implies specific
3001 values of gAMA and cHRM. Rendering
3002 intent is the CSS-1 property that
3003 has been defined by the International
3005 (http://www.color.org).
3007 PNG_sRGB_INTENT_SATURATION,
3008 PNG_sRGB_INTENT_PERCEPTUAL,
3009 PNG_sRGB_INTENT_ABSOLUTE, or
3010 PNG_sRGB_INTENT_RELATIVE.
3013 png_set_sRGB_gAMA_and_cHRM(png_ptr, info_ptr,
3016 srgb_intent - the rendering intent
3017 (PNG_INFO_sRGB) The presence of the
3018 sRGB chunk means that the pixel
3019 data is in the sRGB color space.
3020 This function also causes gAMA and
3021 cHRM chunks with the specific values
3022 that are consistent with sRGB to be
3025 png_set_iCCP(png_ptr, info_ptr, name, compression_type,
3028 name - The profile name.
3030 compression_type - The compression type; always
3031 PNG_COMPRESSION_TYPE_BASE for PNG 1.0.
3032 You may give NULL to this argument to
3035 profile - International Color Consortium color
3036 profile data. May contain NULs.
3038 proflen - length of profile data in bytes.
3040 png_set_sBIT(png_ptr, info_ptr, sig_bit);
3042 sig_bit - the number of significant bits for
3043 (PNG_INFO_sBIT) each of the gray, red,
3044 green, and blue channels, whichever are
3045 appropriate for the given color type
3048 png_set_tRNS(png_ptr, info_ptr, trans_alpha,
3049 num_trans, trans_color);
3051 trans_alpha - array of alpha (transparency)
3052 entries for palette (PNG_INFO_tRNS)
3054 num_trans - number of transparent entries
3057 trans_color - graylevel or color sample values
3058 (in order red, green, blue) of the
3059 single transparent color for
3060 non-paletted images (PNG_INFO_tRNS)
3062 png_set_hIST(png_ptr, info_ptr, hist);
3064 hist - histogram of palette (array of
3065 png_uint_16) (PNG_INFO_hIST)
3067 png_set_tIME(png_ptr, info_ptr, mod_time);
3069 mod_time - time image was last modified
3072 png_set_bKGD(png_ptr, info_ptr, background);
3074 background - background color (of type
3075 png_color_16p) (PNG_VALID_bKGD)
3077 png_set_text(png_ptr, info_ptr, text_ptr, num_text);
3079 text_ptr - array of png_text holding image
3082 text_ptr[i].compression - type of compression used
3083 on "text" PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE
3084 PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
3085 PNG_ITXT_COMPRESSION_NONE
3086 PNG_ITXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
3087 text_ptr[i].key - keyword for comment. Must contain
3089 text_ptr[i].text - text comments for current
3090 keyword. Can be NULL or empty.
3091 text_ptr[i].text_length - length of text string,
3092 after decompression, 0 for iTXt
3093 text_ptr[i].itxt_length - length of itxt string,
3094 after decompression, 0 for tEXt/zTXt
3095 text_ptr[i].lang - language of comment (NULL or
3097 text_ptr[i].translated_keyword - keyword in UTF-8 (NULL
3098 or empty for unknown).
3100 Note that the itxt_length, lang, and lang_key
3101 members of the text_ptr structure only exist when the
3102 library is built with iTXt chunk support. Prior to
3103 libpng-1.4.0 the library was built by default without
3104 iTXt support. Also note that when iTXt is supported,
3105 they contain NULL pointers when the "compression"
3106 field contains PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE or
3107 PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt.
3109 num_text - number of comments
3111 png_set_sPLT(png_ptr, info_ptr, &palette_ptr,
3114 palette_ptr - array of png_sPLT_struct structures
3115 to be added to the list of palettes
3116 in the info structure.
3117 num_spalettes - number of palette structures to be
3120 png_set_oFFs(png_ptr, info_ptr, offset_x, offset_y,
3123 offset_x - positive offset from the left
3126 offset_y - positive offset from the top
3129 unit_type - PNG_OFFSET_PIXEL, PNG_OFFSET_MICROMETER
3131 png_set_pHYs(png_ptr, info_ptr, res_x, res_y,
3134 res_x - pixels/unit physical resolution
3137 res_y - pixels/unit physical resolution
3140 unit_type - PNG_RESOLUTION_UNKNOWN,
3141 PNG_RESOLUTION_METER
3143 png_set_sCAL(png_ptr, info_ptr, unit, width, height)
3145 unit - physical scale units (an integer)
3147 width - width of a pixel in physical scale units
3149 height - height of a pixel in physical scale units
3150 (width and height are doubles)
3152 png_set_sCAL_s(png_ptr, info_ptr, unit, width, height)
3154 unit - physical scale units (an integer)
3156 width - width of a pixel in physical scale units
3157 expressed as a string
3159 height - height of a pixel in physical scale units
3160 (width and height are strings like "2.54")
3162 png_set_unknown_chunks(png_ptr, info_ptr, &unknowns,
3165 unknowns - array of png_unknown_chunk
3166 structures holding unknown chunks
3167 unknowns[i].name - name of unknown chunk
3168 unknowns[i].data - data of unknown chunk
3169 unknowns[i].size - size of unknown chunk's data
3170 unknowns[i].location - position to write chunk in file
3171 0: do not write chunk
3172 PNG_HAVE_IHDR: before PLTE
3173 PNG_HAVE_PLTE: before IDAT
3174 PNG_AFTER_IDAT: after IDAT
3176 The "location" member is set automatically according to
3177 what part of the output file has already been written.
3178 You can change its value after calling png_set_unknown_chunks()
3179 as demonstrated in pngtest.c. Within each of the "locations",
3180 the chunks are sequenced according to their position in the
3181 structure (that is, the value of "i", which is the order in which
3182 the chunk was either read from the input file or defined with
3183 png_set_unknown_chunks).
3185 A quick word about text and num_text. text is an array of png_text
3186 structures. num_text is the number of valid structures in the array.
3187 Each png_text structure holds a language code, a keyword, a text value,
3188 and a compression type.
3190 The compression types have the same valid numbers as the compression
3191 types of the image data. Currently, the only valid number is zero.
3192 However, you can store text either compressed or uncompressed, unlike
3193 images, which always have to be compressed. So if you don't want the
3194 text compressed, set the compression type to PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE.
3195 Because tEXt and zTXt chunks don't have a language field, if you
3196 specify PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE or PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
3197 any language code or translated keyword will not be written out.
3199 Until text gets around a few hundred bytes, it is not worth compressing it.
3200 After the text has been written out to the file, the compression type
3201 is set to PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE_WR or PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt_WR,
3202 so that it isn't written out again at the end (in case you are calling
3203 png_write_end() with the same struct).
3205 The keywords that are given in the PNG Specification are:
3207 Title Short (one line) title or
3210 Author Name of image's creator
3212 Description Description of image (possibly long)
3214 Copyright Copyright notice
3216 Creation Time Time of original image creation
3217 (usually RFC 1123 format, see below)
3219 Software Software used to create the image
3221 Disclaimer Legal disclaimer
3223 Warning Warning of nature of content
3225 Source Device used to create the image
3227 Comment Miscellaneous comment; conversion
3228 from other image format
3230 The keyword-text pairs work like this. Keywords should be short
3231 simple descriptions of what the comment is about. Some typical
3232 keywords are found in the PNG specification, as is some recommendations
3233 on keywords. You can repeat keywords in a file. You can even write
3234 some text before the image and some after. For example, you may want
3235 to put a description of the image before the image, but leave the
3236 disclaimer until after, so viewers working over modem connections
3237 don't have to wait for the disclaimer to go over the modem before
3238 they start seeing the image. Finally, keywords should be full
3239 words, not abbreviations. Keywords and text are in the ISO 8859-1
3240 (Latin-1) character set (a superset of regular ASCII) and can not
3241 contain NUL characters, and should not contain control or other
3242 unprintable characters. To make the comments widely readable, stick
3243 with basic ASCII, and avoid machine specific character set extensions
3244 like the IBM-PC character set. The keyword must be present, but
3245 you can leave off the text string on non-compressed pairs.
3246 Compressed pairs must have a text string, as only the text string
3247 is compressed anyway, so the compression would be meaningless.
3249 PNG supports modification time via the png_time structure. Two
3250 conversion routines are provided, png_convert_from_time_t() for
3251 time_t and png_convert_from_struct_tm() for struct tm. The
3252 time_t routine uses gmtime(). You don't have to use either of
3253 these, but if you wish to fill in the png_time structure directly,
3254 you should provide the time in universal time (GMT) if possible
3255 instead of your local time. Note that the year number is the full
3256 year (e.g. 1998, rather than 98 - PNG is year 2000 compliant!), and
3257 that months start with 1.
3259 If you want to store the time of the original image creation, you should
3260 use a plain tEXt chunk with the "Creation Time" keyword. This is
3261 necessary because the "creation time" of a PNG image is somewhat vague,
3262 depending on whether you mean the PNG file, the time the image was
3263 created in a non-PNG format, a still photo from which the image was
3264 scanned, or possibly the subject matter itself. In order to facilitate
3265 machine-readable dates, it is recommended that the "Creation Time"
3266 tEXt chunk use RFC 1123 format dates (e.g. "22 May 1997 18:07:10 GMT"),
3267 although this isn't a requirement. Unlike the tIME chunk, the
3268 "Creation Time" tEXt chunk is not expected to be automatically changed
3269 by the software. To facilitate the use of RFC 1123 dates, a function
3270 png_convert_to_rfc1123_buffer(buffer, png_timep) is provided to
3271 convert from PNG time to an RFC 1123 format string. The caller must provide
3272 a writeable buffer of at least 29 bytes.
3274 Writing unknown chunks
3276 You can use the png_set_unknown_chunks function to queue up private chunks
3277 for writing. You give it a chunk name, location, raw data, and a size. You
3278 also must use png_set_keep_unknown_chunks() to ensure that libpng will
3279 handle them. That's all there is to it. The chunks will be written by the
3280 next following png_write_info_before_PLTE, png_write_info, or png_write_end
3281 function, depending upon the specified location. Any chunks previously
3282 read into the info structure's unknown-chunk list will also be written out
3283 in a sequence that satisfies the PNG specification's ordering rules.
3285 Here is an example of writing two private chunks, prVt and miNE:
3287 #ifdef PNG_WRITE_UNKNOWN_CHUNKS_SUPPORTED
3288 /* Set unknown chunk data */
3289 png_unknown_chunk unk_chunk[2];
3290 strcpy((char *) unk_chunk[0].name, "prVt";
3291 unk_chunk[0].data = (unsigned char *) "PRIVATE DATA";
3292 unk_chunk[0].size = strlen(unk_chunk[0].data)+1;
3293 unk_chunk[0].location = PNG_HAVE_IHDR;
3294 strcpy((char *) unk_chunk[1].name, "miNE";
3295 unk_chunk[1].data = (unsigned char *) "MY CHUNK DATA";
3296 unk_chunk[1].size = strlen(unk_chunk[0].data)+1;
3297 unk_chunk[1].location = PNG_AFTER_IDAT;
3298 png_set_unknown_chunks(write_ptr, write_info_ptr,
3300 /* Needed because miNE is not safe-to-copy */
3301 png_set_keep_unknown_chunks(png, PNG_HANDLE_CHUNK_ALWAYS,
3302 (png_bytep) "miNE", 1);
3303 # if PNG_LIBPNG_VER < 10600
3304 /* Deal with unknown chunk location bug in 1.5.x and earlier */
3305 png_set_unknown_chunk_location(png, info, 0, PNG_HAVE_IHDR);
3306 png_set_unknown_chunk_location(png, info, 1, PNG_AFTER_IDAT);
3308 # if PNG_LIBPNG_VER < 10500
3309 /* PNG_AFTER_IDAT writes two copies of the chunk prior to libpng-1.5.0,
3310 * one before IDAT and another after IDAT, so don't use it; only use
3311 * PNG_HAVE_IHDR location. This call resets the location previously
3312 * set by assignment and png_set_unknown_chunk_location() for chunk 1.
3314 png_set_unknown_chunk_location(png, info, 1, PNG_HAVE_IHDR);
3318 The high-level write interface
3320 At this point there are two ways to proceed; through the high-level
3321 write interface, or through a sequence of low-level write operations.
3322 You can use the high-level interface if your image data is present
3323 in the info structure. All defined output
3324 transformations are permitted, enabled by the following masks.
3326 PNG_TRANSFORM_IDENTITY No transformation
3327 PNG_TRANSFORM_PACKING Pack 1, 2 and 4-bit samples
3328 PNG_TRANSFORM_PACKSWAP Change order of packed
3330 PNG_TRANSFORM_INVERT_MONO Invert monochrome images
3331 PNG_TRANSFORM_SHIFT Normalize pixels to the
3333 PNG_TRANSFORM_BGR Flip RGB to BGR, RGBA
3335 PNG_TRANSFORM_SWAP_ALPHA Flip RGBA to ARGB or GA
3337 PNG_TRANSFORM_INVERT_ALPHA Change alpha from opacity
3339 PNG_TRANSFORM_SWAP_ENDIAN Byte-swap 16-bit samples
3340 PNG_TRANSFORM_STRIP_FILLER Strip out filler
3342 PNG_TRANSFORM_STRIP_FILLER_BEFORE Strip out leading
3344 PNG_TRANSFORM_STRIP_FILLER_AFTER Strip out trailing
3347 If you have valid image data in the info structure (you can use
3348 png_set_rows() to put image data in the info structure), simply do this:
3350 png_write_png(png_ptr, info_ptr, png_transforms, NULL)
3352 where png_transforms is an integer containing the bitwise OR of some set of
3353 transformation flags. This call is equivalent to png_write_info(),
3354 followed the set of transformations indicated by the transform mask,
3355 then png_write_image(), and finally png_write_end().
3357 (The final parameter of this call is not yet used. Someday it might point
3358 to transformation parameters required by some future output transform.)
3360 You must use png_transforms and not call any png_set_transform() functions
3361 when you use png_write_png().
3363 The low-level write interface
3365 If you are going the low-level route instead, you are now ready to
3366 write all the file information up to the actual image data. You do
3367 this with a call to png_write_info().
3369 png_write_info(png_ptr, info_ptr);
3371 Note that there is one transformation you may need to do before
3372 png_write_info(). In PNG files, the alpha channel in an image is the
3373 level of opacity. If your data is supplied as a level of transparency,
3374 you can invert the alpha channel before you write it, so that 0 is
3375 fully transparent and 255 (in 8-bit or paletted images) or 65535
3376 (in 16-bit images) is fully opaque, with
3378 png_set_invert_alpha(png_ptr);
3380 This must appear before png_write_info() instead of later with the
3381 other transformations because in the case of paletted images the tRNS
3382 chunk data has to be inverted before the tRNS chunk is written. If
3383 your image is not a paletted image, the tRNS data (which in such cases
3384 represents a single color to be rendered as transparent) won't need to
3385 be changed, and you can safely do this transformation after your
3386 png_write_info() call.
3388 If you need to write a private chunk that you want to appear before
3389 the PLTE chunk when PLTE is present, you can write the PNG info in
3390 two steps, and insert code to write your own chunk between them:
3392 png_write_info_before_PLTE(png_ptr, info_ptr);
3393 png_set_unknown_chunks(png_ptr, info_ptr, ...);
3394 png_write_info(png_ptr, info_ptr);
3396 After you've written the file information, you can set up the library
3397 to handle any special transformations of the image data. The various
3398 ways to transform the data will be described in the order that they
3399 should occur. This is important, as some of these change the color
3400 type and/or bit depth of the data, and some others only work on
3401 certain color types and bit depths. Even though each transformation
3402 checks to see if it has data that it can do something with, you should
3403 make sure to only enable a transformation if it will be valid for the
3404 data. For example, don't swap red and blue on grayscale data.
3406 PNG files store RGB pixels packed into 3 or 6 bytes. This code tells
3407 the library to strip input data that has 4 or 8 bytes per pixel down
3408 to 3 or 6 bytes (or strip 2 or 4-byte grayscale+filler data to 1 or 2
3411 png_set_filler(png_ptr, 0, PNG_FILLER_BEFORE);
3413 where the 0 is unused, and the location is either PNG_FILLER_BEFORE or
3414 PNG_FILLER_AFTER, depending upon whether the filler byte in the pixel
3415 is stored XRGB or RGBX.
3417 PNG files pack pixels of bit depths 1, 2, and 4 into bytes as small as
3418 they can, resulting in, for example, 8 pixels per byte for 1 bit files.
3419 If the data is supplied at 1 pixel per byte, use this code, which will
3420 correctly pack the pixels into a single byte:
3422 png_set_packing(png_ptr);
3424 PNG files reduce possible bit depths to 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16. If your
3425 data is of another bit depth, you can write an sBIT chunk into the
3426 file so that decoders can recover the original data if desired.
3428 /* Set the true bit depth of the image data */
3429 if (color_type & PNG_COLOR_MASK_COLOR)
3431 sig_bit.red = true_bit_depth;
3432 sig_bit.green = true_bit_depth;
3433 sig_bit.blue = true_bit_depth;
3438 sig_bit.gray = true_bit_depth;
3441 if (color_type & PNG_COLOR_MASK_ALPHA)
3443 sig_bit.alpha = true_bit_depth;
3446 png_set_sBIT(png_ptr, info_ptr, &sig_bit);
3448 If the data is stored in the row buffer in a bit depth other than
3449 one supported by PNG (e.g. 3 bit data in the range 0-7 for a 4-bit PNG),
3450 this will scale the values to appear to be the correct bit depth as
3453 png_set_shift(png_ptr, &sig_bit);
3455 PNG files store 16-bit pixels in network byte order (big-endian,
3456 ie. most significant bits first). This code would be used if they are
3457 supplied the other way (little-endian, i.e. least significant bits
3458 first, the way PCs store them):
3461 png_set_swap(png_ptr);
3463 If you are using packed-pixel images (1, 2, or 4 bits/pixel), and you
3464 need to change the order the pixels are packed into bytes, you can use:
3467 png_set_packswap(png_ptr);
3469 PNG files store 3 color pixels in red, green, blue order. This code
3470 would be used if they are supplied as blue, green, red:
3472 png_set_bgr(png_ptr);
3474 PNG files describe monochrome as black being zero and white being
3475 one. This code would be used if the pixels are supplied with this reversed
3476 (black being one and white being zero):
3478 png_set_invert_mono(png_ptr);
3480 Finally, you can write your own transformation function if none of
3481 the existing ones meets your needs. This is done by setting a callback
3484 png_set_write_user_transform_fn(png_ptr,
3485 write_transform_fn);
3487 You must supply the function
3489 void write_transform_fn(png_structp png_ptr, png_row_infop
3490 row_info, png_bytep data)
3492 See pngtest.c for a working example. Your function will be called
3493 before any of the other transformations are processed. If supported
3494 libpng also supplies an information routine that may be called from
3497 png_get_current_row_number(png_ptr);
3498 png_get_current_pass_number(png_ptr);
3500 This returns the current row passed to the transform. With interlaced
3501 images the value returned is the row in the input sub-image image. Use
3502 PNG_ROW_FROM_PASS_ROW(row, pass) and PNG_COL_FROM_PASS_COL(col, pass) to
3503 find the output pixel (x,y) given an interlaced sub-image pixel (row,col,pass).
3505 The discussion of interlace handling above contains more information on how to
3508 You can also set up a pointer to a user structure for use by your
3511 png_set_user_transform_info(png_ptr, user_ptr, 0, 0);
3513 The user_channels and user_depth parameters of this function are ignored
3514 when writing; you can set them to zero as shown.
3516 You can retrieve the pointer via the function png_get_user_transform_ptr().
3519 voidp write_user_transform_ptr =
3520 png_get_user_transform_ptr(png_ptr);
3522 It is possible to have libpng flush any pending output, either manually,
3523 or automatically after a certain number of lines have been written. To
3524 flush the output stream a single time call:
3526 png_write_flush(png_ptr);
3528 and to have libpng flush the output stream periodically after a certain
3529 number of scanlines have been written, call:
3531 png_set_flush(png_ptr, nrows);
3533 Note that the distance between rows is from the last time png_write_flush()
3534 was called, or the first row of the image if it has never been called.
3535 So if you write 50 lines, and then png_set_flush 25, it will flush the
3536 output on the next scanline, and every 25 lines thereafter, unless
3537 png_write_flush() is called before 25 more lines have been written.
3538 If nrows is too small (less than about 10 lines for a 640 pixel wide
3539 RGB image) the image compression may decrease noticeably (although this
3540 may be acceptable for real-time applications). Infrequent flushing will
3541 only degrade the compression performance by a few percent over images
3542 that do not use flushing.
3544 Writing the image data
3546 That's it for the transformations. Now you can write the image data.
3547 The simplest way to do this is in one function call. If you have the
3548 whole image in memory, you can just call png_write_image() and libpng
3549 will write the image. You will need to pass in an array of pointers to
3550 each row. This function automatically handles interlacing, so you don't
3551 need to call png_set_interlace_handling() or call this function multiple
3552 times, or any of that other stuff necessary with png_write_rows().
3554 png_write_image(png_ptr, row_pointers);
3556 where row_pointers is:
3558 png_byte *row_pointers[height];
3560 You can point to void or char or whatever you use for pixels.
3562 If you don't want to write the whole image at once, you can
3563 use png_write_rows() instead. If the file is not interlaced,
3566 png_write_rows(png_ptr, row_pointers,
3569 row_pointers is the same as in the png_write_image() call.
3571 If you are just writing one row at a time, you can do this with
3572 a single row_pointer instead of an array of row_pointers:
3574 png_bytep row_pointer = row;
3576 png_write_row(png_ptr, row_pointer);
3578 When the file is interlaced, things can get a good deal more complicated.
3579 The only currently (as of the PNG Specification version 1.2, dated July
3580 1999) defined interlacing scheme for PNG files is the "Adam7" interlace
3581 scheme, that breaks down an image into seven smaller images of varying
3582 size. libpng will build these images for you, or you can do them
3583 yourself. If you want to build them yourself, see the PNG specification
3584 for details of which pixels to write when.
3586 If you don't want libpng to handle the interlacing details, just
3587 use png_set_interlace_handling() and call png_write_rows() the
3588 correct number of times to write all the sub-images
3589 (png_set_interlace_handling() returns the number of sub-images.)
3591 If you want libpng to build the sub-images, call this before you start
3594 number_of_passes = png_set_interlace_handling(png_ptr);
3596 This will return the number of passes needed. Currently, this is seven,
3597 but may change if another interlace type is added.
3599 Then write the complete image number_of_passes times.
3601 png_write_rows(png_ptr, row_pointers, number_of_rows);
3603 Think carefully before you write an interlaced image. Typically code that
3604 reads such images reads all the image data into memory, uncompressed, before
3605 doing any processing. Only code that can display an image on the fly can
3606 take advantage of the interlacing and even then the image has to be exactly
3607 the correct size for the output device, because scaling an image requires
3608 adjacent pixels and these are not available until all the passes have been
3611 If you do write an interlaced image you will hardly ever need to handle
3612 the interlacing yourself. Call png_set_interlace_handling() and use the
3613 approach described above.
3615 The only time it is conceivable that you will really need to write an
3616 interlaced image pass-by-pass is when you have read one pass by pass and
3617 made some pixel-by-pixel transformation to it, as described in the read
3618 code above. In this case use the PNG_PASS_ROWS and PNG_PASS_COLS macros
3619 to determine the size of each sub-image in turn and simply write the rows
3620 you obtained from the read code.
3622 Finishing a sequential write
3624 After you are finished writing the image, you should finish writing
3625 the file. If you are interested in writing comments or time, you should
3626 pass an appropriately filled png_info pointer. If you are not interested,
3629 png_write_end(png_ptr, info_ptr);
3631 When you are done, you can free all memory used by libpng like this:
3633 png_destroy_write_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr);
3635 It is also possible to individually free the info_ptr members that
3636 point to libpng-allocated storage with the following function:
3638 png_free_data(png_ptr, info_ptr, mask, seq)
3640 mask - identifies data to be freed, a mask
3641 containing the bitwise OR of one or
3643 PNG_FREE_PLTE, PNG_FREE_TRNS,
3644 PNG_FREE_HIST, PNG_FREE_ICCP,
3645 PNG_FREE_PCAL, PNG_FREE_ROWS,
3646 PNG_FREE_SCAL, PNG_FREE_SPLT,
3647 PNG_FREE_TEXT, PNG_FREE_UNKN,
3648 or simply PNG_FREE_ALL
3650 seq - sequence number of item to be freed
3653 This function may be safely called when the relevant storage has
3654 already been freed, or has not yet been allocated, or was allocated
3655 by the user and not by libpng, and will in those cases do nothing.
3656 The "seq" parameter is ignored if only one item of the selected data
3657 type, such as PLTE, is allowed. If "seq" is not -1, and multiple items
3658 are allowed for the data type identified in the mask, such as text or
3659 sPLT, only the n'th item in the structure is freed, where n is "seq".
3661 If you allocated data such as a palette that you passed in to libpng
3662 with png_set_*, you must not free it until just before the call to
3663 png_destroy_write_struct().
3665 The default behavior is only to free data that was allocated internally
3666 by libpng. This can be changed, so that libpng will not free the data,
3667 or so that it will free data that was allocated by the user with png_malloc()
3668 or png_calloc() and passed in via a png_set_*() function, with
3670 png_data_freer(png_ptr, info_ptr, freer, mask)
3673 PNG_DESTROY_WILL_FREE_DATA
3674 PNG_SET_WILL_FREE_DATA
3675 PNG_USER_WILL_FREE_DATA
3677 mask - which data elements are affected
3678 same choices as in png_free_data()
3680 For example, to transfer responsibility for some data from a read structure
3681 to a write structure, you could use
3683 png_data_freer(read_ptr, read_info_ptr,
3684 PNG_USER_WILL_FREE_DATA,
3685 PNG_FREE_PLTE|PNG_FREE_tRNS|PNG_FREE_hIST)
3687 png_data_freer(write_ptr, write_info_ptr,
3688 PNG_DESTROY_WILL_FREE_DATA,
3689 PNG_FREE_PLTE|PNG_FREE_tRNS|PNG_FREE_hIST)
3691 thereby briefly reassigning responsibility for freeing to the user but
3692 immediately afterwards reassigning it once more to the write_destroy
3693 function. Having done this, it would then be safe to destroy the read
3694 structure and continue to use the PLTE, tRNS, and hIST data in the write
3697 This function only affects data that has already been allocated.
3698 You can call this function before calling after the png_set_*() functions
3699 to control whether the user or png_destroy_*() is supposed to free the data.
3700 When the user assumes responsibility for libpng-allocated data, the
3701 application must use
3702 png_free() to free it, and when the user transfers responsibility to libpng
3703 for data that the user has allocated, the user must have used png_malloc()
3704 or png_calloc() to allocate it.
3706 If you allocated text_ptr.text, text_ptr.lang, and text_ptr.translated_keyword
3707 separately, do not transfer responsibility for freeing text_ptr to libpng,
3708 because when libpng fills a png_text structure it combines these members with
3709 the key member, and png_free_data() will free only text_ptr.key. Similarly,
3710 if you transfer responsibility for free'ing text_ptr from libpng to your
3711 application, your application must not separately free those members.
3712 For a more compact example of writing a PNG image, see the file example.c.
3716 The simplified API, which became available in libpng-1.6.0, hides the details
3717 of both libpng and the PNG file format itself.
3718 It allows PNG files to be read into a very limited number of
3719 in-memory bitmap formats or to be written from the same formats. If these
3720 formats do not accommodate your needs then you can, and should, use the more
3721 sophisticated APIs above - these support a wide variety of in-memory formats
3722 and a wide variety of sophisticated transformations to those formats as well
3723 as a wide variety of APIs to manipulate ancilliary information.
3725 To read a PNG file using the simplified API:
3727 1) Declare a 'png_image' structure (see below) on the stack, set the
3728 version field to PNG_IMAGE_VERSION and the 'opaque' pointer to NULL
3729 (this is REQUIRED, your program may crash if you don't do it.)
3731 2) Call the appropriate png_image_begin_read... function.
3733 3) Set the png_image 'format' member to the required sample format.
3735 4) Allocate a buffer for the image and, if required, the color-map.
3737 5) Call png_image_finish_read to read the image and, if required, the
3738 color-map into your buffers.
3740 There are no restrictions on the format of the PNG input itself; all valid
3741 color types, bit depths, and interlace m